Not long ago, my sister in law, sent me a compelling devotion entitled "Blessed with Less". Sometimes, I fear, I paint an all too rosy picture of life as a Christian. I hope you never get the impression from me or my writing that God is a "cosmic Santa Clause"! I hope we all come to understand that God is interested in far more than our comfort, our status, even our health! While He certainly gives us "good" gifts, often His greatest and most meaningful blessing come when we are "Blessed with Less".
My mom and I were talking yesterday as mothers and daughters do and something painful from the past came up. My mom said, "Now, why do we want to bring that up!" And I said, "Well, Honey Moma, nothings wasted in the kingdom of God!" I believe this with my whole heart!
None of us like tough times and if we had the choice we'd say a big, polite, "No, thank you!" and hurry on pretty fast! But, there's a lot that happens in this life that we just don't choose and it's important for something good to come out of everything. Once, in a dark time, I remember being on my knees before God and crying out..."Why, God, why!" And in His gentle, still soft voice He answered..."Jane, I never promised you that wouldn't go through hard times. What I promised you is My presence and that is enough." And you know what? It is.
Love, Jane
...At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it's all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become... From 2 Corinthians 12 (The Message)
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