Tag: <span>grace</span>

Published July 18, 2009

My Struggles are about Him

by Max Lucado
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What about your struggles? Is there any chance, any possibility, that you have been selected to struggle for God’s glory? Have you “been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake� (Philippians 1:29)?

Here is a clue. Do your prayers seem to be unanswered? What you request and what you receive aren’t matching up? Don’t think God is not listening. Indeed he is. He may have higher plans.

Here is another. Are people strengthened by your struggles? A friend of mine can answer yes. His cancer was consuming more than his body; it was eating away at his faith. Unanswered petitions perplexed him. Well-meaning Christians confused him. “If you have faith,� they said, “you will be healed.�

No healing came. Just more chemo, nausea, and questions. He assumed the fault was a small faith. I suggested another answer. “It’s not about you,� I told him. “Your hospital room is a showcase for your Maker. Your faith in the face of suffering cranks up the volume of God’s song.�

Oh, that you could have seen the relief on his face. To know that he hadn’t failed God and God hadn’t failed him—this made all the difference. Seeing his sickness in the scope of God’s sovereign plan gave his condition a sense of dignity. He accepted his cancer as an assignment from heaven: a missionary to the cancer ward.

A week later I saw him again. “I reflected God,� he said, smiling through a thin face, “to the nurse, the doctors, my friends. Who knows who needed to see God, but I did my best to make him seen.�

Bingo. His cancer paraded the power of Jesus down the Main Street of his world.

God will use whatever he wants to display his glory. Heavens and stars. History and nations. People and problems.

Rather than begrudge your problem, explore it. Ponder it. And most of all, use it. Use it to the glory of God.

Through your problems and mine, may God be seen.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/07/18/ml_struggles/
Not to be reprinted without permission

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Max Lucado
From: It’s Not About Me
© (Thomas Nelson, 2007),
Used by permission
To learn more about Max Lucado visit his website at:
http://www.maxlucado.com/about/

Thoughts by All thoughts by Max Lucado Thoughts by Men

Published February 19, 2009

God of the Spirits of all Mankind

by Sylvia Gunter
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Listen to the blessing of the Lord in Timothy 4:22. “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” “But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, ‘O God, God of the spirits of all mankind…‘ ” (Numbers 16:22).

I bless you in the name of the God of the spirits of all mankind. The Lord who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth is forms the spirit of man. He stirs up your spirit and moves your spirit. In his providence he watches over your spirit, so commit your spirit to your Father and creator (Psalms 35:15). I bless you with the knowledge that God gave you life and shows you his unfailing love, and he preserves your life and times by his care (Job 10:12).

Beloved child, listen with your spirit to 1 Corinthians 15:45. “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.”
1 Corinthians 6:17 states, “But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.” Our Lord Jesus prayed for you, that you may be one, just as the Father was in him and he is in you. Be blessed, for the Lord Jesus has given you the glory that Father God gave him, so that you may be one as they are one (John 17:20-23). I bless you with uniting yourself with the Lord Jesus, with being one with him in spirit and being life-giving to all you meet. I bless you with spiritual fervor, that you may speak and the things of God and be diligent and enthusiastic in serving him, being one with him and devoted to him in spirit, soul, and body (Acts 18:25, Romans 12:11,
1 Corinthians 7:34).

“The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” I bless you with being able to distinguish your spirit from your soul, differentiating between the thoughts of your spirit and the attitudes of your soul. I bless you with responding to situations and circumstances from the depths of your spirit, not from your soul. I bless you with being humble, contrite, and repentant, so that you will be revived and renewed in heart and spirit by the Holy One, who inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57:15). When you are overwhelmed and your spirit grows faint, I bless you with assurance that he knows the way you should go (Psalms 142:3). I bless you with the confidence that when you call for help, and the Father of your spirit hears you, because he is close to the brokenhearted and rescues those who are crushed in spirit (Psalms 34:18).

 I bless your spirit with being refreshed by others who are faithful to you, and I bless you with often refreshing others in their spirits (1 Corinthians 16:18, 2 Corinthians 7:13). I bless you with the spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline given by God, not of timidity or fear (2 Timothy 1:7).

I bless you with glorifying God in your body and your spirit, which are God’s, because you are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV). I bless you with praying and singing and praising God with your spirit
(1 Corinthians 14:14-16). I bless you with exalting the Lord and rejoicing in God your Savior with your spirit, as you celebrate his choosing you and recall all the great things he has done for you (Luke 1:46-49). I bless you with worshiping the Father in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). I bless you in the name of the God of the spirits of all mankind.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2009/02/19/sg_god-of-the-spirits/

Thoughts by All thoughts by Sylvia Gunter Thoughts by Women