God's Glory in Weakness

This morning's reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 was a balm to my soul.  Each of the past few mornings I've awakened to an immediate sense of failure.  I can't really cite a reason for this, and I've been quoting Romans 8:1 to myself over and over throughout these days.

Today, I was blessed to read I Corinthians 1:7,8 "so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."  Blameless in Him.  Okay, that's what I want to hang onto.

The rest of the chapter goes on to talk about how God's wisdom is foolishness to the world and also that His weakness is stronger than men.

I've been thinking a lot about weakness these days, too.  A friend and I have been studying again a book we read a few decades ago, "Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby.  It's one I highly recommend.  In the chapter we studied yesterday Blackaby reminds us that when the world sees God doing in us what clearly only God can do, they see Him and are attracted to Him.

That made me think about our community-wide packing party and also our Operation Christmas Child area team.  This packing party is clearly something only God can do, but I don't think our community recognizes that.

Because the party is held at a large church, I think most believe that 1,000+ people come together to bring in the items and put the boxes together.  In reality, however, God uses a small team of weak people to make it happen.

We had a visitor at our Operation Christmas Child area team meeting last week, and she was amazed to see our small group.  She said, "I thought you'd have 200 people at a meeting.  I can't believe you do so much with so few people.  We really do have a great God."  Oh, yes, we do!

Our team technically has 29 members but many of them are relay center coordinators in outlying areas who don't often attend our meetings and generally don't participate much outside of National Collection Week.  Our monthly meetings usually have about 10 in attendance.

Additionally, there are five or six who deal with severe chronic illnesses or mobility problems and one whose child has special needs.  We are not healthy, wealthy, or wise in the world's eyes, for sure. But God...

God, in His mercy, has chosen us and called us to be a team.  God equips us.  We pray in our weakness and God answers in His strength.  By His grace He provides all we need year after year.

I don't think the community sees this.  I don't think most understand how great God's power is in our weakness.  But we see.  We know.

God, help me tell of Your goodness every chance I get so others will know, too.