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abundance, encounter, faith, Father, healing, heart, intimacy, love, peace, perspective, reality, rejoice, rest, strength, thankful, trials, triumph
I’ve been having a recurring Aha! moment. Normally, learning the same lesson over and over would be distressing, but in this case, I’m loving it:
Where I am weak God is strong.
You may be thinking ‘D’uh’ instead of ‘Aha!’, if you’re familiar with this Scripture, but it’s like hearing “God loves you” hundreds of times; when it actually sinks in, it becomes the newest and best piece of news EVER…
I have celebrated God’s strength in my weakness many times over, but whenever I ‘rediscover it’, it delights me as much as the first. It almost makes forgetting this astoundingly delicious reality worth it:
Some newly discovered or annoyingly recurring shortcoming will slap me in the face (pretty much daily 🙂 ) and have me focusing on my lack rather than on God’s ‘LOT’. It’ll have me wrestling, sometimes pinned, and then, AHA! I’m up, even celebrating my weaknesses (well, almost), as they are precisely where God will not only be strong through me, but even use them to my benefit. (Romans 8:26,28) Mind Blowing!
Another facet of God’s turning our trials into triumph is His promise of vengeance for the underdog. In Isaiah 61:7, He proclaims good news to the poor, healing to the brokenhearted, liberty to the captives, AND, instead of disgrace, DOUBLE honor and DOUBLE portion, instead of confusion, REJOICING, not to mention EVERLASTING JOY. WOOHOO!!!
I have seen this at work in my own life. God has brought me through a journey of healing from fatherlessness, replacing rebellion, independence, and self-protection, with grateful trust and relieved dependence on the Best Father Ever, as well as freedom to share my heart and struggles to the point where I am still amazed when I remember how this used to make me choke.
As promised in Isaiah 61, heaviness has turned to celebration. Anyone who has ever been heartsick will beyond appreciate the significance of the transition into joy and peace
YAY! for ‘too good to be true’ grace and payback! How amazing it is to have Jesus, the shrewdest and kindest Lawyer, for a Brother, and the most perfect and loving Judge for a Father!
So, what are the trials (no pun intended 🙂 ) in YOUR life that our Loving Lawyer and Judicious Judge want to turn into triumph?
blossomingpebble 
I love your writing style! And the way you remind us of Jesus in all his awesomeness and grace for mistake-makers such as me 🙂 So great to hear how God’s brought you through such hardship and given you true freedom. Great post.
Thanks! That’s very encouraging. Yes, He is so Good!
What an amazing post, you always seem to post what we need at that moment, thank you so much, is so true we are blessed to see the joy in our weaknesses. Blessings
Hi Doris! Thank-you for your encouraging words, I’m glad the post spoke to you. All the best to you too.
Very true and a wonderful post! You squeeze so much juice into it..that my cup is overflowing dear! May we all drink it deeply! Great post! Thanks for sharing such a powerful post! Much love sent your way my dear!
I’m glad it spoke to you. It was a blessing for me to process as I wrote. Our Father is so Good. I receive the love and encouragement 🙂 Much blessing to you.
I love this post. I have learned to take great joy in my weaknesses. Today I sat on a small Q & A panel, where the children asked us to testify about miracles we have experienced or witnessed in our lives. I was able to ‘brag’ about being the most ordinary of the ordinary people on our panel. In fact, I was able to boast that I was considered weird and was picked on when I was a kid. I know some of our children identified with that. After our testimonies, we went to worship and gave each child a paper and pencil, with the instruction to draw themselves doing some kind of miracle. One girl in particular, who I know is one of those picked-on kids, drew a picture of herself standing on a podium preaching to a great crowd. I dare to hope that my testimonies, along with my confessions of having been an outcast, have helped to build faith in this girl that God will do great things through her. I am totally psyched to be a weak and ordinary woman because God LOVES to pour his power into simple clay pots like me.
Thanks Teresa! I’m so excited about the impact of your experience on this little girl and how she then saw herself impacting others. It is so amazing how our Father uses the ‘ordinary’ and the ‘negative’ for tremendous good. Thanks for sharing, I’m psyched about it too.
Hannah!!!!!!!!
It’s been such a long time! But it’s really good hearing from you through your posts 🙂 I liked your post for sure. It had so much to chew and think about. One of the things you touched on really ministered to me.
“He proclaims good news to the poor, healing to the broken hearted, liberty to the captives, AND instead of disgrace, double honor, double portion”
That statement really ministered to me. God turns our trials into triumphs! A wonderful thought……..
Rolain
Hi Rolain!
Yes, it has been a long time (though hard to believe almost a year! It was quite a whirlwind…) Great to hear from you too 🙂 I’m glad the post resonated. It was encouraging to me as I wrote it. Our Father is so good.
Hannah
I hope we will be hearing more of what God has been doing in your life over the past year….. 🙂
Hey, it’s been almost a year! I hope this means you’re writing again? 🙂 Anywho…your perspective is vital to a God connected life. The action of focusing is an important element of faith. Since we are faith creatures, we will always receive the result of our focus. If we focus on lack, we’ll “attract” lack. If we focus on LOT, we “energize” that. God knows that, so as the greatest Parent, He keeps allowing me to “do over” because it trains my chooser to get stronger and faster. Okay…that was a lot of pontificating there. Let’s just say, I’ve found your article to be true to life for me.
Hi Gary! It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year! I do hope to write more in 2014. Thanks for the encouragement. And ‘pontificate’ away 🙂 I appreciate your insight. Glad the post resonated.