Let Go and Let God

A friend at church told me the following story that really got me thinking. Picture a party, where a group of people got into a not unusual conversation about whether a glass of water was half empty or half full. (Most people know this in relation to one's perspective on life as an optimist or a pessimist.)  One party-goer changed it up and asked how heavy the glass was.  The person holding it said it wasn't very heavy.  Now consider that you have only held that glass for an hour.  After holding it for a whole day, it would feel much heavier.  After two days, a week, a month...heavier and heavier until you would be physically unable to hold the weight, no matter how full or empty the glass.  This is much like our everyday troubles and cares.  We can carry them alone for a short time, but without God, we quickly grow weak and cannot bear them.  No matter the size to begin with, we must give it all to God.  Otherwise our small and temporary troubles will become long-term and unbearable burdens.  David reminds us of this in Psalm 55:22. Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.

What are your cares today?  Is there something you need to give to God?  It may be hard to let go of the control, but it’s so much harder to hold and carry the weight alone.  How wonderful that we don’t have to carry it alone!  We have an amazing Lord and Savior who wants to carry our load with us, if we give it to Him in faith. Let’s Let Go and Let God today and be free of the weight that we don’t have to carry!

Do Not Lose Heart

2 Cor 4:  1 Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Several months ago I read a devotion about motherhood as a ministry.   2 Cor 4:1 was part of that devotion and has since been my source of strength and encouragement as I go through the daily business of training my children.  It reminds me to stick with it when it’s tough and to call on Him and His mercy to get through the day.  It reminds me that I am blessed to have my children, especially as I think of those whose children are not with them.  It reminds me that I am called by God to be a mother (as one is called to any ministry).   And being called to ministry does not mean that I am already equipped for that ministry.  As the saying goes, “God does not call the equipped, He equips the called.”  

Everyday, I must ask Him to equip me for whatever comes my way.  Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 2 Cor 4:16  Outwardly, I am exhausted and I probably look it sometimes.  Inwardly, I am renewed daily as I learn to trust God as my help in all I do.

I choose to focus on the high calling of training my children.  In the process of training them, I am learning and growing in my own faith.  It is unlikely that one would impart wisdom unto a child and not learn it herself!  Perhaps that is just what God intended.   I still need to foster my personal relationship with my Lord and Savior, but the time I spend teaching the Word to my children also brings it into my own heart.  Now, that certainly doesn’t mean it’s always easy to be an example to my children.  Gosh,  I want to yell and scream and throw a fit just the way they do some days (and, yes, I have)!  It is in those times that I have come to realize I must seek His mercy and guidance even more.  If we do that “…our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Cor 4:1 7-18  My own and my children’s eternal salvation is more important than what is seen in the here and now.  And nothing I face in my daily life could EVER surpass what Jesus endured for me on the cross.  So, I choose to keep on with what's important and to give it ALL (the good, the bad and the ugly!) to Him.