Expanding with No Limit

Grace and Peace to all of you, it brings me great pleasure to write to you all again. May this be of great encouragement to you!

Memory Verse: John 12:27-“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.

Devotional:

Jesus quoted the above verse on what we now call Palm Sunday...about a week before his death on the Cross. If you haven't already figured it out, He was speaking of His death. What a great and laborious trial to come for the King of the Jews, a trial in fact He would not physically survive. However pay close attention to the verse that follows it:

Father, glorify Your name.”
Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” 

The Message Bible reads “Father, put your glory on display.”

When in trials, we shouldn't ask that God deliver us from the trial, but that God will help us not only get through it, but glorify Him in it! If we're rescued every time a troubling situation arises we will never grow in our faith in God. We live to seek His glory, and He is most glorified when our faith abounds in Him. If we do not grow, we'll always carry a wimpy, unstretched, unchallenged, superficial faith. So when the really tough and seemingly impossible situations come we'll crack under the pressure. God wills to use us in all situations. He wants us to function for His glory despite whatever is going on in our life. In fact, He's ready to equip us to do so.

Think about a rubber band, or better yet a balloon. It is wise to stretch it out a few times before you blow it up. That way, when you do blow it, it doesn't automatically pop at the first sign of stress, but instead it will grow larger with that extra endurance. You see, it was exercised beforehand. Our faith, like the balloon needs to be exercised so that we can become all that God has called us to be, endure all that He will allow us to endure, and glorify Him in every trial. But if we do not embrace opportunities to be stretched and tested we'll never reach our potential in Christ. We serve a big God, and we need big faith, so He can do Big things through us! Don't get me wrong, our faith can start small...remember the parable of the mustard seed? (Mark 4:30-32) But it is divinely designed to grow larger! When a trial comes, it's really a wonderful blessing in disguise, because here is the chance to actually put your faith in God to work! Here is your opportunity to really depend on the supernatural Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnibenevolent God! Yes! Get Excited!!! I know American Christianity has conditioned you to only trusting God in the small matters of life, but what about the circumstances that only the Creator of the Universe can bring you through? Don't fret, Be thankful in it! God calls us to be thankful in all circumstances (Ephesians 5:20). Is God not mighty enough to bring you through even “this” whatever “this” may be? Is His arm too short to save? (Isaiah 59:1). For this hour of adversity I have come...for a purpose! So that we would have faith that moves mountains, so that the Father may be glorified in us! So today, open up your perspective, renew your mind in Christ and walk confidently through knowing that God is preparing you for a greater glory...for His glory.

Don't believe me? Ask Jesus!

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” -Luke 22:42

With a gruesome death approaching, Christ sought the glory of the Father. He knew that in order for the Father to be most glorified, He had to die.

Albert Barnes writes “as the salvation of the world depended on it, he felt that it would not be proper to pray to be delivered from it. He came to suffer, and he submitted to it”

Christ reached His fullest potential on the Cross dying for every nasty, wretched, deplorable sin of mankind so that we could have a chance at heaven. Christ submitted to the Father even to death, so today and beyond let's embrace opportunities to be stretched so that God can use us to our fullest potential...to display His glory!


T. L. Samuels