| Dear
Fellow-workers with God,
Years ago, when my family
and I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, we used to enjoy
the warmth, during winter months, of a large brick fireplace
in our home.
To fuel the experience,
we kept a stack of various hardwood logs just outside
the back door. Since our children were still young, it
was Dad's regular job (me!) to step outside in the chill
and to bring in another load of barky burnables.
It didn't take me long,
however, to realize that I had an obvious physical limit
as to how many logs that I could pick up with one hand
and successfully cradle in the balancing crook of my other
arm. Such a limitation caused me to have to make extra
trips to the log stack! I quickly learned that anytime
that my wife, Sara, was available to assist in this hauling
process, then I was able to carry much more deciduous
abundance into the house in a single trip!
With my wife's help, I could
simply serve as a two-armed receiver, while she loaded
me up to the tip of my chin. No more one-armed balancing
act for me! No more dropping timber chunks on my furry
slippers! Fewer trips and more wood for the family hearth.
I think that those log delivery
efforts also parallel other aspects of my life. There
are times when I find myself doing my utmost to develop
a self-guided method to carry out personal responsibilities
instead of partnering with God to get a job done. Isn't
that one defining characteristic of a Christian believer...to
go to God for help, in every situation, instead of "going
it alone"? When we do anything without involving
God's hand in it, we may be limiting ourselves to a process
of trying to balance the heavy firewood of life in the
crook of one fleshly arm.
I believe that our attitude
in prayer should be like the image of a young dad (Kevin),
with two outstretched arms, thanking God for filling me
up with as much as He determines that I can carry.
(repeat after me...)
"There's nothing God won't
do for me!"
Psalm 68:19
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits,
even the God of our salvation.
When it comes to God's blessings, we
can, "Get loaded!"
Psalm 84:11b
... no good thing will he [God] withhold from them that
walk uprightly.
In our believing expectation of what
the Word promises, we can confess that there's nothing
God won't do for us! The double negative
emphasizes the positive! It reminds me of the food advertisement
from years ago, "Nobody doesn't
like Sara Lee [cakes]." I suppose they could have
said, "Everybody likes Sara Lee," but wanted
to get our attention by stating it in a double negative.
Romans 8:32
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give
us all things?
Genesis 9:3b (NIV)
... just as I gave you the green plants, I now give
you everything.
1 Timothy 6:17 (NIV)
Command those who are rich in this present world not
to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which
is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly
provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
Scripture even uses the same three Hebrew
words for "open the windows of heaven" to describe
BOTH how He abundantly poured out the rain at Noah's time
(Genesis 7:11), as well as how He pours out blessings
into the lives of His people (Malachi 3:10b).
Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life—were all the
fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows
of heaven were opened...
Malachi 3:10b
... prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts,
if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour
you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough
to receive it.
Let's hold out our open
arms in every situation and expect a "deluge"
of blessings from the Giver of all good gifts! Let's call
on His help in every situation. There's nothing God won't
do for you!
We love you! – Kevin Guigou
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