"Strengthen the Feeble Hands, Steady the Knees That Give Way."
Archive for July, 2000
Zechariah Doubted
Jul 28th
Zechariah had a problem. He was elderly, his wife Elizabeth was elderly, yet the angel Gabriel was telling him Elizabeth would have a baby. He was a righteous man, a Godly man but when Gabriel spoke…Zechariah doubted.
You can hardly blame him. Sure he had the example of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah as well as Elkanah and Hannah but this was a little too close to home. It seems so different when WE are faced with trials. I don’t blame Zechariah, but the angel did.
Doubt is natural, but it is not spiritually healthy. It is understandable, but it is nonetheless dangerous, “…because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” You may not be sure, that is understandable, but if the one who promised is able (and He is) and His promises are true (and they are) then put your doubt aside. As James illustrates, doubt is like the wind. If you cannot keep the wind out, at least, let it pass. Do not allow it to fill your sail and press you towards faithlessness.
Zechariah’s question was more than doubt however. He is really asking, “How will I know what you More >
I Shall Not Want
Jul 5th
My friend Andrea past away and I mourn her loss. She had just received her second lung transplant which (for all she knew) was successful. It is strange that at the end of these few years she lived on earth I remember most her struggle and desire to live.
It is good that for me I saw what it means to have faith tested and — proven. To the end, to the painful end, she was a woman of faith, a woman of prayer with a word of encouragement for others, who in light of her circumstances, suffered much less.
It is strange that my faith is tested by so much less; by loneliness, poverty, pornography, rudeness, and various desires of my own heart. Not to minimize our struggles, after all, they are our struggles and a heartbreak is a heartbreak.
We are equipped to handled our own lives and I am sure I would be ill-equipped to deal with even your small troubles. They might be monumental to me. Andrea had her cancer and lung transplants. Each day indeed has enough trouble of its own. Yes—troubles enough of its own.
I am sure Andrea’s parents are finding their faith tested. More >
