Grace for the Day

Can you recall a time when you felt like it was all you could do just to get through a day? Or even through a moment?

I'm in that place right now.

I'm actually questioning how I will even get through writing this devotional.

It is a hot day, I'm tired, we have too many things to do, and I don't feel all that well physically. In all honesty, I don't feel all that well emotionally either. Within myself, I'm simply a depleted individual.

Yet here I sit, praying that God will spill through me and out onto the page.

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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Weakness.

If there is any good thing I have learned about my own weaknesses, it is this: In my weakness is where I find myself on my knees before God. In my weakness is where I find compassion for others in need. In my weakness is where I confess my iniquity and depend on God alone to sustain me.

I wish I could tell you I was more like the apostle Paul, who goes on to write...

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10

I do not delight in my weaknesses! I revolt against them. I feel anger toward them. I resist.

And then I berate myself about it.

For if God's power is made perfect in weakness, how can I resist?

I struggle with this, almost daily. However, as I grow in my faith, one of the ways I walk the walk is by recognizing God's grace upon each day...

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” Lamentations 3:21-24

His compassions are new every morning. So, I ask myself, "Has the Lord given me enough grace for this day?"

Not yesterday.

Not tomorrow.

Not the ten thousand things in the future I can so easily let myself worry about.

But today? And the answer is always, "Yes."

"And has the Lord provided me with all I need for this day?"

Again, the anwer is always, "Yes."

A dear friend once told me that her prayer for her children and grandchildren was not that God would give them more than they needed, but that He would always give them enough. When I take life one day at I time, in this way, and recognize in each moment, each day, how God is there, providing and loving me just as He has promised, I recognize that He is always giving me enough. It might not be what I think I need, but it is what He knows I need. This assurance is where I find His peace. It's where I find rest.

It's also where I find hope... Hope that God will continue to strengthen me in this way. Hope that I will grow in my faith and my ability to trust in Him with more ease... That someday I might be able to fast-forward through the resistance and self-beratement, and enter into each day, each moment, in full assurance of His provision.

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:25-26