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.
