“He
giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater;
He
sendeth more grace when the labours increase;
To
added afflictions he addeth his mercy,
To
multiplied trials, his multiplied peace.
When
we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When
our strength has failed ere the day is half done;When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
His
love has no limits, his grace has no measure,
His
power has no boundary known unto men;For out of his infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth and giveth again.”
This
poem by Annie Johnson Flint reminds me that He is capable to provide in the
hour of need.
I
have a friend who has begun to experience the slow death of a parent. As a friend this is hard for me to watch.
Seeing my burden she recently said to me, “It will be okay. It will be the new
normal.” In her tone it was as if she was saying to me: grace will come in my
time of need. Her kind of confidence inspires me. Is it true that God can and
will provide for you? Can he show up for you be it through the strength to
survive exam season or the strength to endure the kind of emotional turmoil
associated with the loss of a loved one?
In your hour of need Satan says, “See this! There is no hope! Things will not get better, only worse!”
This
is not the way that the God of hope speaks to his kids. It has never been this
way.
Deuteronomy
8 tells the story of the Israelites in the desert, called daily to place their
hope in his grace for manna. They had to depend on the grace that was declared
for them daily! Eventually the text
says that they knew that they were called to depend on the Word of the Lord in
their need (v.3).
What is your need today? Look at it, be strong and bring it to Him. The Israelites had to come to know that they would not exhaust his grace. They had to come to a place where they knew that it would come; that it was there to be appropriated.
In
our desert places, we are able to distract ourselves from feeling what is going
on. Take that feeling captive to his throne and then receive from his
multiplied mercies. It is strange to me that after years of experiencing His
mercies, the mercies are still not yet a guarantee in my mind, but that they
must be appropriated by faith. It is
interesting that my friend has begun to see a pattern and inadvertently passed
on her testimony – when there is human need there will be God’s provision.
Students in particular, I pray that in your time here at Redeemer you would
begin to see a pattern and that your lives would (almost inadvertently) pass it
on to another generation.
