Refining
Me
The
thankful heart sees the best part of every situation. It sees problems and
weaknesses as opportunities, struggles as refining tools, and sinners as saints
in progress. Francis Frangipane
God is in the process of refining me and to be honest
with you, He has His work cut out for Him.
I woke up late this morning. Needless to say I get anxious when that
happens. I am not sure why, because the
day is going to roll on without me even if I didn’t get up. The other thing is I don’t have to actually
be at work until 8:00am and I normally leave my house at 5:30am. I know, about now you are thinking is she
insane. Why would she get up at 4:30am
to be at work by 6:30am if she doesn’t have to start working until 8:00am. Believe me, I have had people ask me if I am
crazy. Last time I checked, I didn’t
think so, but then what do I know about crazy.
So in reality I am not late just early. The reason I get to work early is to write my
devotional and spend the first hour and a half of my day meditating on God and
His greatness. So I am driving down the
road in the “fast lane” and have you ever noticed how when you are in a hurry
everyone else slows down. I am trying to
go 70 in the fast lane, which is the speed limit, and the only people in the
fast lane are those going 60.
Here’s the thing.
I get to work and one of my coworkers stops by my office to talk to
me. This is not someone that is normally
in the office as early as I get here. We
start talking about how she spilled coffee on her new shoes this morning and
then on her new dress. She then starts
to talk about how her mother is in the hospital and nearing the end of her
life. Her mother has alzheimer’s,
dementia and is not eating or drinking.
Before you know it we are both in tears.
She tells me how she and her sister are trying to make end of life decisions
for her mother and how hard it is. In
that moment it was like God hit me over the head with a two by four. Why was I so concerned over being late?
God did some refining in me this morning. The things that I was anxious about this
morning are minor compared to the big picture.
God really wants me to leave the details up to Him. The problem is we live in a world where we
are taught to be “self-sufficient” and “independent”. When we live our life that way we tend to
forget about God and His strength.
If God calls you to do something, His strength is
and will be sufficient. He promises us
that His grace is sufficient. Since the
world teaches us that we should be self-sufficient I often forget that God’s strength
is made perfect in weakness. Why does it
work that way? Because when I am at my
weakest and most vulnerable, that is when I understand that it is God working
and not me. When we determine that we
can’t do it on our own, that is when God will do His best work in us.
Prayer for the Day:
Heavenly Father, I continually try to take the reins away from You and do
things on my own. As you so often remind
me, Your grace is sufficient for me and Your strength is made perfect in my
weakness. Thank you for refining
me. When I am at my weakest is when I
see You more clearly. Help me to take
pleasure in the difficulties that I encounter in life. Through them I will see You.
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