EXTRA ENERGY WHEN WE NEED
IT
I came home from work and
went out to water the flowers and throw the ball for Peanut. As I was getting
ready to come in, it hit me that tomorrow is the garbage day when they pick up
extra stuff –OHHH NOOO! I desperately needed to put out as many of the pruned, cut
branches I could, but I was pretty sure I didn’t have an ounce of extra energy
to do it. I turned toward the door to go inside
but looked around at the pile of branches and the empty garbage cans, and I made the decision just to start.
Partway through I heard
myself saying, “Thank you, Jesus, thank
you, Lord,” and I kept going until I
stuffed as many branches into those cans as I could. Putting cut branches in the garbage cans may sound like a trivial
task, but to me it was important. To God, all things we do are important.
Have you ever noticed how
you can think you have no energy to do a job, or you don’t want to do it at all,
but if you make the decision just to start it,
soon you feel like someone gave you a shot
of supernatural adrenalin and you just keep at it till the job’s done? I think that’s the Lord. The Bible
says He gives us strength.
In the book of Joel, the
people were already working hard, but they also had a war on their hands. God said:
“Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears: let the
weak say, ‘I am strong’” (Joel 3:10). The Lord made sure they would win the battle
as well as having a great harvest.
When we feel like we don’t
accomplish as much as we’d like, many times it’s because we just don’t start. How much closer would we be
to our goals if we’d started when we first intended to? It’s up to us to start.
God can’t make us do anything against our own will. He’s given us freedom of
will. When we start something, any project, anything that’s good for us, it’s
up to us to start, but then the Lord, by way of the Holy Spirit in us, can
energize our physical bodies (including our minds) to get the project done.
The truth of Philippians
4:13 is awesome: “I can do all things through Christ which strentheneth me.”
But we don’t have to do
everything alone. Yes, we are responsible for deciding
to start, but the Lord also provides help. When Moses went to battle, God told
him he had to hold up his hand to have victory. But Moses got tired. When his
arm began to droop because he couldn’t hold it up for an extended period, he got two others to help him, and they won the battle.
“And Moses said unto Joshua, ‘Choose
us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of
the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.’ And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed:
and when he let down his hand,
Amalek prevailed.
But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him,
and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and
the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
So Joshua destroyed the Amalekite army with
swords. And
the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Write this for a memorial in a book,’” (Ex.
17:9,11-14).
Sometimes at work, I’ll take on a difficult-looking faux
finish. I get it started, but if I’m having a hard time, I’m not ashamed to ask
for help, and the girls jump in, and we
get it done.
Let’s take notice of those
times when the Lord gives us extra energy for ourselves, or extra help from
others and remember to thank Him.
Love, Carolyn
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