Friday, October 07, 2005
Rejoice at Weakness
I’ve started a new habit. I guess it’s not truly a habit yet but hopefully it will turn into one. I have a confession to make. My devotional times…yeah, they have been pretty much non existent for about 5 months now. I am hoping that this blog will help to change that. So my new habit is this. I have a devotional time. Not a new concept I realize but it feels good to get that off my chest.
My father in law gave my wife a small devotional while we were in college. Dru has been harping on me for quite some time now to read it myself. To be honest I don’t know why I haven’t. It’s called God Calling compiled by A. J. Russell. The writers are anonymous but have some very good things to say. Anyway, I don’t feel comfortable just reading what somebody else wrote about God for my devotionals, so I decided to start going through 1 Samuel as well.
Ironically, even those this probably isn’t the right definition of irony, the devo and 1 Samuel seemed to go hand in hand. (Somehow I knew this would happen before I started.) The title of the devo was Rejoice at Weakness. If you know anything about the story of Samuel then you know that Samuel’s mother, Hannah, was made very weak by God. Her womb was closed. The Bible says, ‘by the Lord. He was causing her to go through a time of trial, a time of weakness.
The story goes on to say that Hannah grieved over this fact for quite some time. She prayed to the Lord ‘weeping bitterly’. She even prayed so hard from her heart that her lips were moving but no sounds were coming out of her mouth. Eli, the high priest, thought she was DRUNK! Hannah was willing to get on her knees and cry out to God with so much passion and so much conviction, and dare I say, so much weakness that she even appeared to be drunk!
What does this mean for us? Here is my perspective. We live in a land that is more than plentiful. The majority of us, particularly those that will read this, are want for nothing in this world. In my opinion, all of this has dulled our senses to the plight of world around us. We fail to see the poor. We fail to see the oppressed. We fail to see the hungry. It’s not because they aren’t there. It’s because we aren’t looking for them!
Our desire should be to usher in God’s Kingdom. Our desire should be live out Matthew 25: 34-40. How is this to be done? Like Hannah, it will take weakness for us to accomplish our goal. It will take us hitting our knees. Praying with such conviction and passion to live the life that we are called to live. If this means that we have to look “silly” on Sunday morning because during the entire service we are at the alter interceding for those who can’t intercede for themselves, then so be it. If this means that our “prim” and “proper” way of having church has to be set aside for a while then so be it. If this means that we truly, truly need to lament to God and cry out for His hand to touch those in need, then by all means so be it. Let’s take off our self-righteous, logo bearing, status quo clothing and exchange them for sack cloth and ash.
“Rejoice at your weakness, My children. My strength is made perfect in weakness. When you are weak then I am strong. Strong to help, to cure, to protect.”
-Anonymous
Peace
My father in law gave my wife a small devotional while we were in college. Dru has been harping on me for quite some time now to read it myself. To be honest I don’t know why I haven’t. It’s called God Calling compiled by A. J. Russell. The writers are anonymous but have some very good things to say. Anyway, I don’t feel comfortable just reading what somebody else wrote about God for my devotionals, so I decided to start going through 1 Samuel as well.
Ironically, even those this probably isn’t the right definition of irony, the devo and 1 Samuel seemed to go hand in hand. (Somehow I knew this would happen before I started.) The title of the devo was Rejoice at Weakness. If you know anything about the story of Samuel then you know that Samuel’s mother, Hannah, was made very weak by God. Her womb was closed. The Bible says, ‘by the Lord. He was causing her to go through a time of trial, a time of weakness.
The story goes on to say that Hannah grieved over this fact for quite some time. She prayed to the Lord ‘weeping bitterly’. She even prayed so hard from her heart that her lips were moving but no sounds were coming out of her mouth. Eli, the high priest, thought she was DRUNK! Hannah was willing to get on her knees and cry out to God with so much passion and so much conviction, and dare I say, so much weakness that she even appeared to be drunk!
What does this mean for us? Here is my perspective. We live in a land that is more than plentiful. The majority of us, particularly those that will read this, are want for nothing in this world. In my opinion, all of this has dulled our senses to the plight of world around us. We fail to see the poor. We fail to see the oppressed. We fail to see the hungry. It’s not because they aren’t there. It’s because we aren’t looking for them!
Our desire should be to usher in God’s Kingdom. Our desire should be live out Matthew 25: 34-40. How is this to be done? Like Hannah, it will take weakness for us to accomplish our goal. It will take us hitting our knees. Praying with such conviction and passion to live the life that we are called to live. If this means that we have to look “silly” on Sunday morning because during the entire service we are at the alter interceding for those who can’t intercede for themselves, then so be it. If this means that our “prim” and “proper” way of having church has to be set aside for a while then so be it. If this means that we truly, truly need to lament to God and cry out for His hand to touch those in need, then by all means so be it. Let’s take off our self-righteous, logo bearing, status quo clothing and exchange them for sack cloth and ash.
“Rejoice at your weakness, My children. My strength is made perfect in weakness. When you are weak then I am strong. Strong to help, to cure, to protect.”
-Anonymous
Peace
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It's cool ...but you need to make it more colorful it's kind of boring.
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: October 08, 2005
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