Week 14 (04.01.09)

This week we were thinking about Philippians 4:13, which says: "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

We looked at the lives of some people who really lived like they knew this to be true, people whose lives were completely surrendered to God and who trusted him completely. Obviously we cannot give all their biographies, but here are some brief examples of some of the people we looked at:

Billy Graham and Luis Palau were both men who were unknown when they were children but who grew up to have millions of people come to hear them speak and saw hundreds of thousands of people saved after hearing the messages God had put on their hearts.

Brother Andrew smuggled Bibles into communist countries so that people could come to know God in places where worshipping him was illegal.

George Muller was a man who had no money of his own but who knew God wanted him to take in orphans. He started off with just a couple but ended up with hundreds and big buildings for them to live in as well as always having enough food and clothing for the children - all because he knew his calling and believed God would provide everything to make this happen.

Nicky Cruz used to be a gang leader in New York; his mother had been a witch doctor and he hated his family. He had commited many robberies, dealt drugs and murdered people. God completely changed his life and made him new. Now he has a family, has worked as a pastor and now he and his wife work with adolescants with addictions, helping them to come to the Lord and allow him to break their addictions.

The lives of these people were filled with miracles and all show that God is amazing beyond our understanding: many of them had broken hearts and lives which were entirely against God, until they let him into their hearts and he transformed them inside and healed their hearts. When we surrender our hearts to God, we don't know where he will take us but it is always so exciting to find out and we should never put a limit in our minds on what we think God can acheive; even if we think we ourselves are useless or the things we have done are too terrible: God has already paid the price of our sins and loves us, and he is powerful enough to use even us. His Word says that the weaker we are, the stronger this shows God to be when he uses us. Therefore give your heats to the Lord, believe "You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength" and ask him to show you what he wants you to do to bring him glory.

Lois and Eleanor