“Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time He said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9a NLT)
No one is perfect except Jesus. Everyone of us as human beings is flawed and comes up short in some way. The issue is never whether, it’s only how. We all fall short of the glory of God because we’re all sinners, scarred by sin and damaged by disobedience to the clear commands of the Lord. We will all carry baggage into our new life in Christ and will wrestle with its implications for as long as we’re in these bodies of clay. But, like Paul, we must not allow our flaws, physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, or otherwise to prevent us from being everything the Lord has called us to be for Him.
The Lord Jesus will never call us to be or do anything He’s not willing to equip us to do. As much as I love the Lord, He never equipped me to be a great speaker. By His grace, I preached for nearly 30 years, but in small congregations who could tolerate my preaching because they didn’t have to pay me very much. My audience now, via this blog, is much larger than any congregation I ever Pastored. Lucky you, you don’t have to listen to me! 😊 Seriously, the Lord will use any of us if we’re willing to be used.
Are you willing? Are you open to looking beyond yourself to your God-given potential if you just put your “yes” on the table and tell the Lord: “Lord, whatever you have for me, I’m in!” As you may already know, I love Ray Majoran. His prayers and pictures are phenomenal, and he inspires me as a Spirit-filled man of God. Each Friday Ray invites someone he knows or has mentored to share a photo and a thought. This beautiful picture and the following thoughts are from one of those special people, Chris Reynolds.
Watching a Puffin come to a landing is a bit comical. Skellig Michael Island off the west coast of Ireland has a large colony of Atlantic Puffins. These cute birds are flying all around you as you hike up and down this magnificent island.
Their landing is one of the oddest things I have seen. They open up their wings so their bodies are vertical, splay their webbed feet wide, and with their feet flopping in the air, plop down on these small platforms and ledges.
When they start their landing, it looks like they are completely out of control, but every time they land perfectly and safely.
Reminds me a bit of the Christian walk. It isn’t always pretty, and can quite often look and feel out of control, but the truth is that as believers, we know that God is in control and has given us everything we need to help us land safely.
So thankful for God’s grace in our weakness!
As am I!
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 