“We serve an all-powerful, amazing, strong God. But we don’t focus enough on that aspect of him. Consequently, our churches are filled with people who are scared and weak. It doesn’t look right for such a powerful God to have such weak children. Powerful is not an adjective I would use to describe most of the people filling churches today. We should talk about the strength of God. God is strong.”
While I wholeheartedly agree with that statement from author Francis Chan First, I also recognize that many who have hoped that God's power and strength would save them from difficult, often dangerous situations have been left disappointed.
The reality is, while God is powerful enough to make the mountains tremble, He never promises to protect His children from all that makes us tremble. We will struggle with pain in heartache in life. That has been the case for every human being since sin entered the world. Storylines that include imprisonment, illness, depression, drunkenness, infertility, marital unfaithfulness, and fatherlessness are not reserved for Days of Our Lives. The most beloved biblical characters had skeletons such as these in their prayer closets.
God does not always shield us from evil. But our Heavenly Father always protects our identity as children made in His image. Our Heavenly Father always provides avenues for us to appropriate our true value and worth. Our Heavenly Father always protects us with His ever present strength in every situation. That strength may not prevent bad things from happening to us, but it does prevent us from being defined by those things.
Problems in life provide God an opportunity to prove how much we need Him. It is in our deepest struggles that our relationship with Him is deepens. It is in going through adversity that our understanding of Him is developed. It is when our hearts hurt the most that they connect with His heart the best.
Safety is not found in the absence of danger; it is found in the presence of God. In other words, we are always safe in Him.
Our Heavenly Father is by our side and, at this very moment, is offering to give us the security, the strength, the power, the peace that we crave. He wants nothing more than to turn our heartache into hope, our frustration into fearlessness, our insecurity into invincibility. In fact, only He has the power to accomplish that. We are safe in His arms. Our God is strong.
While I wholeheartedly agree with that statement from author Francis Chan First, I also recognize that many who have hoped that God's power and strength would save them from difficult, often dangerous situations have been left disappointed.
The reality is, while God is powerful enough to make the mountains tremble, He never promises to protect His children from all that makes us tremble. We will struggle with pain in heartache in life. That has been the case for every human being since sin entered the world. Storylines that include imprisonment, illness, depression, drunkenness, infertility, marital unfaithfulness, and fatherlessness are not reserved for Days of Our Lives. The most beloved biblical characters had skeletons such as these in their prayer closets.
God does not always shield us from evil. But our Heavenly Father always protects our identity as children made in His image. Our Heavenly Father always provides avenues for us to appropriate our true value and worth. Our Heavenly Father always protects us with His ever present strength in every situation. That strength may not prevent bad things from happening to us, but it does prevent us from being defined by those things.
Problems in life provide God an opportunity to prove how much we need Him. It is in our deepest struggles that our relationship with Him is deepens. It is in going through adversity that our understanding of Him is developed. It is when our hearts hurt the most that they connect with His heart the best.
Safety is not found in the absence of danger; it is found in the presence of God. In other words, we are always safe in Him.
Our Heavenly Father is by our side and, at this very moment, is offering to give us the security, the strength, the power, the peace that we crave. He wants nothing more than to turn our heartache into hope, our frustration into fearlessness, our insecurity into invincibility. In fact, only He has the power to accomplish that. We are safe in His arms. Our God is strong.
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