Strength to Stand

 

A Guest Post by Lynn Huggins Blackburn

Deuteronomy 33:25 ~ Your bars shall be iron and bronze, and as your days, so shall your strength be. (ESV)

Right now, I don't feel like my bars are iron or bronze.

I feel like a half-way decent puff of wind could knock me over. I'm in serious need of a vacation. And a massage.

Each day, my to-do list taunts me. Housework, laundry, cooking, shopping, packing lunches, trying not to eat chocolate (and failing), playing with my kids, hanging out with my husband.

And let’s not forget that there are flowers that need watering and relationships that need nurturing and neighbors who need Jesus.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

But these words from Deuteronomy, the blessing that Jacob gave to the tribe of Asher, remind me that there will be enough strength to accomplish what God wants accomplished.

Not necessarily what I want accomplished.

So I'm planning. I'm praying. And I'm trying to hold my goals out in open hands.

I'm starting each day asking God to rule and reign over my day and my calendar. Then, I'm talking to Him about my to-do list and asking Him for my next step. I'm choosing to believe that what truly needs to get done will get done and I'm trying to stay open to the Spirit's leading as I go through my day. (This method comes from Having A Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver).

Some days start this way, but by 7:13 a.m. (more or less), I've grabbed the reins and I'm running the show. Those days always end in exhaustion and aggravation.

Some days I make it until noon. It's a rare day that I make it past supper before I start trying to do things in my own strength. I have to surrender - repeatedly - throughout the day.

I'm not sure what your life is like right now. My guess is you could teach me a thing or two about hectic lives and crazy schedules.

So join me. Don't wait until tomorrow.

Ask God to take the reins right now. Ask Him as many times today as you need to. And then watch as He gives you strength to do what truly needs to be done.

You'll have to repeat this process again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.

But when the winds blow and life threatens to take you down, you'll feel His strength.

And you will stand.
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Day by Day, sung by the Antrim Mennonite Choir

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Lynn Huggins Blackburn has been telling herself stories since she was five and finally started writing them down. She blogs about living life at the intersection of fear and faith on her blog Out of the Boat.

Lynn is a member of the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild and Word Weavers, Greenville. She lives in South Carolina where she hangs out with three lively children, one fabulous man, and a cast of imaginary characters who find their way onto the pages of her still unpublished novels.

She drinks a lot of coffee.