It's an upside down world.
During a six day baby sitting gig, which included sick grandchildren the entire time, I could be heard time and time again saying, "Help me Jesus" or "Lord, I need You."
"I pray to you, God, because you will help me." Psalm 17:6
This morning I am contemplating what it has taken in my life for me to recognize, as Paul did, "When I am weak, then I am strong." What has it taken for the prideful attitude, like that of a toddler who says "I can do this, I don't need you" to be set aside and me recognize God's plan is to always help me and make something more beautiful than anything I could create.
Now I look back and see it has been an ongoing process of "pride stops." Those times when puff-up-ed-ness" and "self-sufficiency had me reliant on my own strength. The stroke was probably the biggest "stop and look to God," but current health issues have me willingly leaning on Him nowadays as well.
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 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. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
A recent sermon by Jason Meyer brought about these thoughts...
Paul is well pleased in weakness because he is saying, “I love it when Christ shows up in strength. I love being a weak canvas because I love it when Christ paints on me....Pride is contending with God for supremacy that belongs to him alone. The pride of man and the glory of God cannot coexist.
Have you ever seen a betta fish? The males are colorful, but they have to be kept in separate containers because if they ever see each other, they puff up and try to attack each other. In our pride, we are like a betta fish trying to contend with God. But when we try to contend with God, it is like a betta fish contending with a blue whale—it is not going to end well.
But things go well for the humble because God loves to give grace to the humble, to give his almighty power to the powerless. Other sins lead us away from God, but pride seeks to put us above God. Humility, on the other hand, places us under the mighty hand of God to receive grace.
That is why God never allows human strength and divine strength to coexist. God knows that we are so fallen that we can twist anything God does and take credit for it. We are like a black hole that sucks everything in and makes it say something about us. Human strength and divine strength would become blended together, and the line between them would become blurred, and then we would try take credit for something that belongs to God."
So today sweet friends we say, "Lord, we need you. Come Lord Jesus come!"
The Song
“Come Jesus Come” Stephen McWhirter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UViC6DllCeA
