Have you ever been so sick that standing up feels like your legs have turned to jello and you're not quite sure if you're going to remain upright or fall over? Or went to pick up something off the floor and ended up with your head spinning? Or wanted to rock your also sick baby but had no strength in your arms to properly hold baby close?
That's the kind of sick that I've been the past 10 days and let me tell you, I have felt pretty helpless, frustrated and down-right exhausted. The house has slowly become as disheveled as my body has felt, the kids were fed every day and given clean pajamas, but that's about all I could muster and even then, I wasn't sure how I could possibly have the strength to get up again to make them one more meal, or give them one more bath or wipe one more nose.
Yet, somehow I did. And I realized so thoroughly that I wasn't the one with the strength to keep going but it was God giving me strength. On my own, I was powerless in the face of this awful sickness. I was laid flat, weak, exhausted and hopeless to care for my children or husband. Yet, as I gave myself over to God, and asked some absolutely incredible prayer warriors to hold me and my family before the Lord, an incredible change happened. I didn't magically get less sick or feel less weak, but in my weakness, God's strength shone through and I was able to make one more meal, rock the baby one more time, get up with the toddler even when I didn't think I possibly could, and through it all, I realized how absolutely weak I as a human am and how absolutely good and strong my God is. How gracious of Him to carry me through my weakness. To enable me to care for my girls and my husband. How compassionate to give me strength to feed our family when my legs left me swaying and my weakness left me spinning. How very true Paul's words in 2nd Corinthians 12:8-10, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
While I have not felt as physically weak from sickness as I have this past couple weeks in a very long time, I also have not experienced God's unchanging strength in such a poignant way any other time. My helplessness held no candle to God's merciful strength. Praise the Lord, His faithful mercy abounds every day. His power is made perfect in my weakness, even if weakness sure is no fun.
Have you ever been so sick that standing up feels like your legs have turned to jello and you're not quite sure if you're going to remain upright or fall over? Or went to pick up something off the floor and ended up with your head spinning? Or wanted to rock your also sick baby but had no strength in your arms to properly hold baby close?
That's the kind of sick that I've been the past 10 days and let me tell you, I have felt pretty helpless, frustrated and down-right exhausted. The house has slowly become as disheveled as my body has felt, the kids were fed every day and given clean pajamas, but that's about all I could muster and even then, I wasn't sure how I could possibly have the strength to get up again to make them one more meal, or give them one more bath or wipe one more nose.
Yet, somehow I did. And I realized so thoroughly that I wasn't the one with the strength to keep going but it was God giving me strength. On my own, I was powerless in the face of this awful sickness. I was laid flat, weak, exhausted and hopeless to care for my children or husband. Yet, as I gave myself over to God, and asked some absolutely incredible prayer warriors to hold me and my family before the Lord, an incredible change happened. I didn't magically get less sick or feel less weak, but in my weakness, God's strength shone through and I was able to make one more meal, rock the baby one more time, get up with the toddler even when I didn't think I possibly could, and through it all, I realized how absolutely weak I as a human am and how absolutely good and strong my God is. How gracious of Him to carry me through my weakness. To enable me to care for my girls and my husband. How compassionate to give me strength to feed our family when my legs left me swaying and my weakness left me spinning. How very true Paul's words in 2nd Corinthians 12:8-10, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
While I have not felt as physically weak from sickness as I have this past couple weeks in a very long time, I also have not experienced God's unchanging strength in such a poignant way any other time. My helplessness held no candle to God's merciful strength. Praise the Lord, His faithful mercy abounds every day. His power is made perfect in my weakness, even if weakness sure is no fun.
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