Thursday, May 12, 2016

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.  
     

Scripture: Thorn in the Flesh


And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

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