January 10, 2010
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First of all, I want to thank Carlos Camacho, pastor of the INT of Ponce, who has engineered, maintained and kept constant watch over this webpage. Those of you who visit frequently are noticing a new change in format and some important additions; the INT online store and my new blog. We value your feedback so please feel free to post your comments on my blog or directly to the Webmaster.
I want to start the year on a positive note… therefore I am offering my readers this short thought for meditation. I hope that each of us can grasp this important point as we start the year 2010 and hopefully you will pray with me each day: “Lord, I depend on your grace and I believe that your power is perfected in my weakness… help me to be content with the challenges that I face today and make me a testimony of your strength.”
And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
The present economic situation facing not only the United States but also the world has been referred to as the “Great Recession”. The year 2009 was challenging to say the least, but on the brighter side, it has been a wakeup call to a greedy and extravagant generation. Most everyone I have talked to are more aware of the need to get rid of high interest debt and be better stewards of their resources in the future.
Difficulties force us to look deep within ourselves for hidden resources of strength. When we are faced with loss, we don’t take things for granted anymore and we look for ways to keep what belongs to us. If a marriage begins to suffer, a responsible couple will look for ways to patch their differences and show their commitment and love with renewed passion. Strong marriages are usually the result of people working through differences and problems. A friend of mine told me that his father went broke at least twice before he became one of Ohio’s wealthiest businessmen. I can share firsthand that our fellowship of churches has emerged from many divisions that caused us to introspect, pray, reorganize and ultimately stand stronger. Difficulties bring success to determined people!
One very spiritual woman once told me that she had learned that her disappointments in the world usually led her into her most intimate times with God. What maturity!
Most of us have battles with complaining in our times of adversity, however when we look back we see the good that usually emerges from those moments.
The apostle Paul came to a place where he was content with his weaknesses because he knew that from them the power of God would be made evident. Read verse nine carefully… God said this, not Paul… “POWER IS PERFECTED IN WEAKNESS”.
A friend of mine just went through a painful divorce. His wife left him and her two children and ran off with another man (that she met on the internet). He lost his job and has had to go to the government for financial assistance after making a salary of $200,000.00 over the last three years. He lost his home, his new car and now drives an old car that another friend lent him. He called me recently and said “David, you are talking to the new me! I am not going to talk about my ex-wife anymore – I am not going to brood over my situation… I am going to emerge from this a new person” He has a spark of faith that says: “I am going to come out of this deep, dark tunnel of pain and heartache a better person.”
Although I despise my weaknesses as a human being, I know that through them God can make His presence known. I am convinced that His eternal kingdom will be inhabited with souls who were sustained by divine, unmerited power during their mortal existence. The credentials for the inhabitants of the eternal New Jerusalem will be “Redeemed, Justified, Reconciled and Sanctified by the blood of Jesus and the Spirit of God”, not “more intelligent, stronger and more self-control than most other people”
Hebrews chapter eleven makes mention of the faith of certain Old Testament saints – notice verse 34:
And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Hebrews 11:32-34
If I am going to win the spiritual warfare that I am faced with every day, I perceive that it is going to be won by God’s grace and not my own whit and strength. Remember, “Power is perfected in weakness”
But what do I do when I feel overwhelmed with fear or despair? What do I do when I don’t know what to do? Those questions have come to the mind of every honest man and woman at different times in their life. THAT is when we need to call the scripture in 2 Corinthians 12:9 to mind… THAT is when we learn to walk on spiritual water and rest in the hands of God. Maybe we truly are helpless to do anything for ourselves in some extreme adverse situation , that is when we need to say “I give up – I am in your hand – God, you will have to take over from here” THAT my friends is when God can glorify his name in us.
The Apostle Paul came to this conclusion:
for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
Romans 14:8
When we resign ourselves to that type of mentality – we are overcomers. We overcome even when it appears to others that we are weak and defeated.
In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Psalms 56:11
One of our dear sisters who contracted cancer died recently. During her 2 year ordeal of operations, pain and chemotherapy she ALWAYS CONFESSED THAT SHE WAS HEALED IN JESUS NAME. She confessed that that she was going to see her miracle until the day she died and passed into the arms of her loving Savior. She overcame the fear of death, the disappointment of sickness, the weakness of chemotherapy, the sorrow of being separated from her family, and became perfect in endurance. In her weakness, she demonstrated her greatest faith. Those of us who knew her stood in awe of her courage and steadfast faith; both of which were a product of her furnace of affliction.
As we head into 2010, let us face it with faith, encouragement, joy and positive anticipation of the fact that God has His best in store for us. Let us put every negative, critical, pessimistic and depressing thought under our feet and look to the blessing that God has promised in his Word.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ
Ephesians 1:3