It’s been awhile, I know. Sometimes living life takes precedence
over writing about it, I guess that’s the best way I can think of to
explain it. But I'm planning on updating this blog with notes from each meeting over the next few months, so stay tuned! It's been a season of quiet for me, but that doesn’t mean my thoughts
haven’t been brewing or that God hasn’t been working. In fact, I think
it has been in times of quiet that He speaks the most to my heart. I was
able to get away for our church’s annual women’s retreat last weekend
and wow did God meet me! There is something so special about times to
slow down and draw near to God and other women, a chance to rest our
souls at His feet and fellowship with focus over several days as opposed
to the snippets we get in “real life”. And if there had been no
profound message to hear from a speaker, God would have used the
mountains and the time away alone to refresh my spirit and speak volumes
to my heart… but the message WAS profound, thank you Sara, for being a vessel for His words, and I just have to share
what God spoke to my heart.
Our pastor’s wife, Sara McConahy, shared on a passage from 2 Corinthians, 4:5 – 5:21
to be exact. I’m going to go ahead and quote the whole passage here to
make it easy for you. I encourage you to take a minute and pray right
now before you read this, asking God to soften your heart to HIS message
to you through the Word…
2 Corinthians 4:5–5:21 (NLT) –
“You
see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus
Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. For
God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this
light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen
in the face of Jesus Christ.
We now have
this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay
jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great
power is from God, not from ourselves.
We are pressed on every side by
troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to
despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked
down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue
to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be
seen in our bodies.
Yes, we live under constant danger
of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be
evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.
But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” We
know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus
and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your
benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be
great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For
our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they
produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our
gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon
be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
New Bodies
For we know that when this earthly
tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this
earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for
us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present
bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For
we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.
While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not
that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather,
we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be
swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
So we are always confident, even
though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at
home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we
are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly
bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So
whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to
please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will
each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in
this earthly body.
We Are God’s Ambassadors
Because we understand our fearful
responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows
we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. Are we commending
ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of
us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry
rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems we are crazy, it is to
bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your
benefit. Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we
believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died
to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who
receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they
will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
So we have stopped evaluating others
from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely
from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And all of this is a gift from God,
who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this
task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And
he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s
ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ
when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
This passage has SO much in it. I won’t regurgitate my whole weekend
of notes for you, but I will share the main points God challenged my
heart with. I think many of us have read this passage, or portions of
it, multiple times before. But I love how God reveals new wisdom to us
through the same scriptures, time and time again. His Word never gets
old or ineffective, amen?! It is living and active! Sara titled
the weekend, “True Treasure in Common Clay”. One of my favorite
scriptures from this passage is
4:7 (NIV)- “ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
I have rejoiced in this truth so many times in my life, that I am weak
to reveal His strength, that God put His light and power in this weak,
cracked pot on purpose so that it would be obvious that it’s HIM who’s
doing a mighty work in me, not me being great by putting in enough
effort. But God pulled back a new layer for me last weekend. Sara said something that the Holy Spirit burned into my heart and I
haven’t forgotten it since. She said, “we REMAIN weak, HE is forever
strong”. At first hearing, I think that statement can make us
uncomfortable. “Wait a minute,” we think, “isn’t He making me stronger,
better in this whole sanctification (growing more into His likeness as
we move towards heaven) process?” She gave us these two equations to
explain the point:
- God’s power + my weakness= my power
- God’s power + my weakness= God’s power
Sara pointed out that many of us see Jesus as an energy drink, which
would be the first equation. “just gotta drink a little more Jesus and
I’ll be stronger for my tasks, better, less weak”. But do you hear the
self focus in that statement? We have this agenda, these areas that we
want to be stronger in, and so we’re asking God to fill us up for OUR
purposes. Scripture tells us something different, it’s not about us!
These cracked pots (that’s us who have been redeemed and reconciled to a
Holy God ONLY by his grace, which comes through Jesus alone) will stay
cracked, will remain weak, so that HIS strength, HIS power can be
revealed. We will not ever arrive in this life, and any growth and
increased strength we have will not ever be because we’ve become less
weak, it will only be because we’ve drawn nearer to the God who fills
us, fixing our eyes on Him, abiding in Him, allowing His light to shine
ever brighter through those cracks.
Friends, this was big for me. Sometimes I find myself so frustrated
and confused about why I’m still struggling with certain things, why I’m
not seeing the growth I long to see, why I’m still so weak. Can any of
you relate? But when we ask ourselves why we want to be stronger, I
think we have to get really honest about why. Could it be our
reputation with others? Our desire to do better for those we love in
our own effort? Maybe it’s a desire for proof that we really are new
creations? But here’s the promise, we ARE new creations, “the old has
gone, the new has come!” We have been forgiven, reconciled to God,
adopted into His Kingdom, it is finished if we have put our faith in
Christ! And this, not because of anything righteous in us. God’s
power, HIS strength, has been put inside of us for HIS glory and our
blessing. We remain weak because He wants us to depend on Him, He wants
the world to see the power of the Gospel , man’s need for Him, in our
lives and know the changes they see, the joy in all circumstances, it’s
not because we’re extra cool and strong and great, but because HE is.
And when we stumble and struggle and suffer, we cling to Him, fixing our
gaze on the only one who can carry us through this life, so that others
will see their need too.
What does this mean for us? Does it mean we stop moving forward,
stop putting forth effort? No, because if we did, we’d be ignoring the
call to “live” for Him, to “walk” by faith, to “abide” in Him. These are
action words. But it’s WHAT we’re living for and WHERE we’re walking
(or running) to, WHOSE strength it is that we need to look at.
John 15:4-5 says,
“Remain
in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it
must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in
me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in
me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do
nothing.””
This passage makes it clear that fruit doesn’t come from our effort,
but from abiding in Him. And it’s always evident that, apart from the
Vine, a branch can’t produce any fruit. The questions I think we have to
ask ourselves are,
- Where does strength come from? My efforts to do better or more dependence on Him in my weakness?
- Whose strength is it? Does more growth equal less weakness, or do we remain weak by design so His strength can be revealed?
- For what purpose do I want to be strong, my own agenda or His purposes?
- Can I really be content, “rejoice” in my weakness, because “His power is made perfect” in my weakness?
Father, thank you, with flat-on-my-face gratitude, for saving me by
your amazing love and grace! There is nothing in me that is worthy of
your love, but You gave it anyway, at a price I can’t fathom. Thank you
for putting your glorious light in this cracked pot, this weak clay
vessel. As I remain weak, I cling, ever tighter, to your strength! I
offer my life to you Father, be glorified as you display Your strength
in my weakness. Make me more like you Father, not for me, but for You!
Amen
