When everything goes wrong – stop! And give yourself some breathing space. Seriously. Unless somebody is drowning or bleeding to death, it is good to just take a chill pill and send up a help help prayer. He knows everything, so He is our greatest asset!

I asked the Lord recently when I was very sick, what can I do about this illness? Now what I actually meant was – ‘What can I do about this interruption to my life… so I can keep on doing what I always do?’ The Lord said this to me: “You are not respecting your body. When it says stop, LISTEN. I got tired and sat down – read the book! You need to take a step back and let yourself recover, before you charge on pushing yourself to do something you can’t do without hurting yourself.”

That sounded like really good advice to me. It is not that I am crazy about work or whatever, because my life hasn’t allowed me to do much of anything, anymore. To be honest with you, I think what really happens is that I’m hoping that if I distract myself enough, I will feel better faster. That’s when I saw that I was actually relying on distraction as the answer, instead of Jesus.  After that ghastly thought, I repented, and then I asked the Holy Spirit what He thinks the answer is, instead. 

“My strength is made perfect in your weaknesses…” He said. “Which do you want more? A solution or My perfection?” I was speechless. 😳 Then I went and looked up the scripture, and lo and behold, it says…“My grace is sufficient for you, for …” – are you ready for this(?)  –  “… My power is made perfect in weakness.” His Grace is all I will ever need, so why try harder, when what I need, at the very beginning of anything I do, is His Grace? Look, I know this scripture. OK? I know it because I need His strength a lot!! But I had not seen it in this light before. By keeping on going when I really should lie down and rest, I was interfering with receiving His perfect strength.

If we want a perfect solution then we need His Grace. It’s funny how we can read the scripture and understand what it says – and sometimes even lean on what we think it is saying … and still miss the point. What the Holy Spirit was actually asking me, is this: “what will you SETTLE FOR?” I realised that I was settling for the lesser blessing. I took that verse to mean that when my strength ran out, I could ask Him and then He would take over.

I had a daring thought! What if I just started OUT by telling Him I’m weak and then give everything over to Him? Instead of bursting my boiler trying until I couldn’t try anymore … What if I gave up… right away? Why not start everything I do with Him? Right at the beginning! By that time I really did need to sit down and rest and reflect for a while. New thoughts do that to me. 

Then I told the Lord immediately, that I really can’t do anything, anymore! I mean why give God the big things when the little things are the stuff that steal your peace? My list of stuff I really can’t do, is endless. And just in case you are thinking to yourself that you are able-bodied and you can do practically everything by yourself … think again. Do you want to be “strong in the Lord and the power of HIS might?” Or do it yourself and get exhausted and frustrated. Do you only give up when it gets too hard, and then ask Him to take over? Why not ask for His help all the time. Trying is exhausting, and we all need the Holy Spirit like AIR.

Here’s the really big thought He left me with. I still haven’t got my spirit around this one yet! Jesus knows how to suffer, He did it perfectly, for us. Now I’m really bad at it. I just try to ‘suck it up buttercup’, for His sake, as a good witness. I wonder what would happen if I exchange my weakness for His Grace and strength in that suffering? The Holy Spirit’s advice was so timely, today. I saw that I need His help because He can help me do all things! Maybe I’ve been reading this stuff upside down and He just turned it right-side up. I’ll let you know about that. 🤗