Episode #174 Be Renewed in God’s Strength & by His Sufficient Grace – Know You from God’s Point of View

Hey friends, it's Jen. I'm excited to spend these few minutes with you as we draw near to God together. And we're approaching him with a unique type of question: asking God to help us see him, and to help us see ourselves more from his point of view, because God knows more about everything than we do. And I think he wants to clue us in a little bit more to how we're made and how he sees us and how he's involved in our day-to-day lives.

As I was prepping for this particular episode, I started thinking about strengths and weaknesses and how easy it is for us to celebrate and think that God celebrates our strengths and in a similar way, how easy and common it is to regret our weaknesses or maybe even to feel like God is disappointed about our weaknesses, too.

But that's not actually what we see in scripture.

In Isaiah 40:29-31, it says

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:29- 31 NIV)

I am in a year of cultivating strength. I'm trying to build health. I want to cultivate strength and endurance in my body. And so I can look at areas of weakness and get frustrated if it feels like my strength building is slow going. I can look at places where I just wish I was stronger, where I didn't get so tired so easily or need so much rest. And I can get down on myself in those areas.

It's good to build strength. It's good to invest in our health. But also, the areas where we are weak provide opportunities for us to rely on God's strength. And as an Enneagram one, as an achiever, as a type A personality, as frankly, a mom and an entrepreneur, I don't like any area of weakness.

I wish I was strong all the way across the board, but that's not how God created us to be.

And that's not what he requires of us either.

In fact, these areas where we may feel or may see that we are weak also provide beautiful opportunities for us to experience how God shares his strength with us.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says,

“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. 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 12:9-10 NIV)

And so that's what we're talking with him about today. And here's a question I encourage you to take to God to see what he would want to share with you.

God, what's an area of my weakness, or of your strength that I can appreciate today?

Even as I asked this question of God, he showed me some areas of his strength and he showed me some areas of my weakness that I was able to appreciate because of how God cares for me through them. Because of how I'm learning to listen to the cues in my body for how I'm learning pace and rest, and for how God's strength is supernaturally overcoming some of my shortcomings and weaknesses in certain areas.

I wonder what he wants to show you. Don't miss this opportunity to ask him. And here's that question one more time.

God, what's an area of my weakness or of your strength that I can appreciate today?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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