Your Weakness, His Strength?

My brother made a comment on the last post I'd been thinking a bit about lately so I want to place a note here to flesh out this thing that can be a problem. The problem is, how do we overcome the limits of our simple minds and recognize that even in our weakness, God can draw strength? Moreover, when do we quit placing limits on God's ability to use us?

Dan's quote in his comment was, "I keep wasting my time on my strengths and thinking they must be the path God wants to work most through me." This is exactly what I'd been thinking about and states the idea very well. We all use this excuse for not being more and doing more for God. It starts with saying we're not ready to become saved or make a commitment to Him because we're not good enough, or acting right, or in the right place spiritually. It continues when we determine that our weaknesses are too much for God to overcome, so we can't possibly serve Him in the way we should until those are corrected.

While both of these thought processes are simply part of being human, they show a lack of understanding of the true power of God and His ability to effect change using any part of us. What's crazy to me is that we'll read about all the mistakes the Israelites made (their deliverance from Egypt is the most common one to attack) and poke fun at how they continued to forsake God and forget what He'd done and was doing for them, and yet often not make the connection that we do the same.

Admittedly, reading these stories has always seemed a little off to me. I'd see how they seemingly continued to forget God's grace and would begin to worship idols, or how they'd complain to Moses and Aaron about different things and I'd wonder how they could be so, well, stupid. But I knew somewhere in there as I was pointing my finger at them that there must be three fingers pointing right back at me, though I couldn't figure out why that was true.

Well, here I am putting limits on God's ability to use me or place me into any form of ministry because I know my own weaknesses and feel they are too big of a hindrance. I seem to think I need to correct them before I can do something for Him. I struggle to accept His power to use me, His power to change me, and fight off the opportunity to serve Him in a great capacity because I can't handle these weaknesses. What kind of a dud am I? No need to answer because I know what the issue is. The issue is that I'm human and because of how I was made, my natural inclination will always be to rely on myself before I let God take full control.

God has given each of us abilities and gifts we can use for Him. We all have strengths in certain areas ranging from encouragement to leadership to caring for children to being prayer warriors...the list is unending. And the needs within His kingdom are unending, which is perfect since we are all so different! This way we can each serve Him using our unique set of skills. But to get there, we have to first recognize our weaknesses are a hindrance only if we refuse to let God turn them into strengths or remove them altogether. We don't have to be perfect to come to God and accept His Son as Savior, and in the same way we don't have to be perfect to serve Him in whatever ministry He has called us to.

You've seen the term "Let go. Let God."? It really is that simple in terms of execution, but the difficulty is overcoming our own mental block that wants to make things hard. God's path for us is so easy to find when we allow Him to mold us into who He wants us to be. He wants nothing but good for all His people. Stop getting in the way of His plan, bow to His love for you and let Him use you for His glory. Stop selling yourself short and stop creating excuses for not being all you can be. Remember, this is God's universe. He created it and has a plan for you to help Him improve it while you're here, but He'll never force you to do anything. Remove the veil of misunderstanding from before your eyes and just let...God...reign.

If I'm Divorced, Am I Broken?

When I went through my divorce in 1998, I had a lot of troubling thoughts. My concerns ran the gamut from wondering if I had lost favor in God's eyes to whether I would ever love again to how long it would take to heal from the pain I felt inside.

Just a few months after my divorce was finalized, it became evident God was calling me to move someplace new. Prayer led me to apply for a job in Jackson, MS, where my brother was in seminary. After a phone interview where I was told they'd make a decision in the next few days on who would be part of a second interview, I got the job, via phone call 20 minutes after the initial interview. A God thing? I think so.

I packed up and moved to Jackson, thankful for the opportunity to live with my brother but not thrilled with having to leave my daughter behind with her mother. God has always been faithful, and brought her to me a few months later, but that's not the point of this article. In what I strongly feel was God's design to help me stretch and grow, He led me to attend the Vineyard Church in Jackson. It was during a lunch conversation with their pastor, Bruce Wimberley, that I came to realize my divorce was not the end of my life either personally or spiritually.

During my year in Jackson, God showed me His tremendous grace and provided friends to help make it clear to me that I could be forgiven and life did move forward. Believe me when I say I needed it, and I bet anyone else who has been through the pain of divorce understands how low you feel and how much of a struggle it can be to progress in your faith.

One of the things I notice most for Christians who are going through divorce or who have already experienced it is a sense that their worth in God's eyes has changed. They feel they are damaged goods and that their path to greater things, be it their relationship with God or ministry opportunities, has been thwarted.

THIS IS NOT SO!!!!

God does not make broken stuff! He makes amazing people capable of breaking themselves, thanks to free will, but He also provides a level of grace we can barely understand! You, just because you've been through divorce, still have life!

I wanted to state those things strongly so you'd recognize just how small a divorce really is. You know who it affects the most? Us. It's our human nature to hold on to things we've done that bother us, that are negative, no matter how far in our past they occurred. It's our nature to hold fast to the pain we've felt partly so we make sure we don't make the same mistakes again in the future. That's fine, but we have to also recognize that if we've asked God's forgiveness for something, it's done and over. We should let it go, and this includes divorce!

Look, it's a terrible thing; we all know that. It has horrible consequences and can certainly stick with you for many years because of them, especially if there are children involved. But, spiritually, you don't have to let it overwhelm you. God forgives and He is faithful in His promise to us to love us no matter what! Let Him do His work in you. Then you be sure to give Him your concerns and pain and live your life doing great things for His glory!