If you want to know the truth, I tried to get out of writing a devotion this week. My fiction manuscript is due to the publisher on Monday, and as of Friday, I still had tons to do. Add to that, my daughter’s eleventh birthday was Saturday—which meant most of an entire day would be taken up with celebration activities. I told God I had only limited time this weekend. I couldn’t afford to set aside the manuscript and work on a devotion. Surely He could understand. After all, that’s how stress comes about—from trying to do too much.
Guess it’s obvious God had a different plan. He also has a sense of humor. As I prayed, the words to the devotion unfolded easily in my mind—and it was all about this very dilemma. Words from Scripture came to mind as well: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
I realized an important lesson. Stress comes from trying to accomplish too much outside of God’s will or God’s timing, or from trying to move in our own strength. But when we look to Him, it might be hard and it might involve long hours, but He’s able to cause us to flow in the power of His Holy Spirit.
It didn’t matter that I had tons to do to my manuscript before the Monday deadline. Didn’t matter that my time was diminished considerably because of my daughter’s birthday. Didn’t matter that I had a devotion to write. And it didn’t matter that various members of my family seemed to need me for something whenever I hit a stride in the novel. In fact, as I write this devotion, I know I’ll be working into the night to meet this deadline. But God is well able to handle it. His grace is sufficient.
Are you feeling weak and powerless in an area of your life? That’s exactly where God can show Himself strong. His grace is sufficient for you.
3 comments:
Hi Kimberly,
I think we all face those challenges, I know I face them on a daily basis with juggling projects. I use a system called basecamp to manage all my projects and milestones and it can't keep up with the fast pace of life, family, ministry, business and unexpected situations.
Sometimes when projects clash, it's either a challenge or a distraction (the enemy stealing your time), or yes just doing way too much! Unfortunately, family comes first, especially birthday's LOL!!!!
As for challenges. Ther's positive challenge and negative challenge. I will focus on the positive challenge. We must allow God on a continual basis to stretch us and challenge us to go higher, whether is be educationally, spiritually, financially or mind wise.
Regardless of what your situation is, God cannot and will not be boxed in. If you feel inadequate or like something is way over your head, it’s because God Is Way Over Your Head. He does not settle for easy nor small challenges.
Anything that comes easy should be only because you have mastered certain areas, assignments or tasks etc.
God will sometimes start with a small challenge, but he will not stay at that level, he meets you at your level. When he feels you need to go higher, he gives you a greater task or assignment. He gives you ideas and concepts that seem impossible to the natural mind. You will always be challenged to rise above your current thinking and circumstances on a continual basis. Thank God for the challenges. They will only cause you think with no limitation or boundaries.
Then There's Time... Time is something we all wish we had more of in our busy day to day lives. This is why there are so many books and courses on time management. Carl Sandburg said that “Time is the coin of our life. It is the only coin you have and you have to determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let others spend it for you.” In other words your time is valuable and you have to be careful who you allow to use or waste it. When it is gone, it’s gone.
I have had to learned the art of how to use time and I’m still learning. I’m very careful of how it is spent, with whom it is spent, and on what it is spent. People that manage their time properly achieve at the highest level possible. Why? Learning to manage your time will allow you to get more done in less time. You become organized and skillful at estimating just how long a project will take to complete or how long it will take you to get to your destination.
And Finally, there's doing too much... Just say no! Period. Doing to much can affect your health. There's only one you and you have to take care of Kimberly. I hope this helps.
Hi Kim,
just what i needed to hear at this time because i feel so tired with trying to do assignments late at night,support raising,church commitments...but wait what about God is all of this right!Even though Hos Grace is sufficient,He still needs to remain my first love!!
Mwah
Hi Liesl! So good to hear from you on the blog--all the way from South Africa!! Praying God's grace upon you as you walk in His will. He has an awesome work for you to do, and I know that His grace is sufficient for each step you have to take. Lean on Him; trust in Him. He's already got the plan...just walk in it. Love you! Mwah!
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