travelling light (daily devotions for your elective)

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Day 51: Strength for the Weary

Isaiah 40: 29 - 31
Strength for the Weary

Have you ever got to the end of a week, or even a shift and felt you had nothing left to give? Then suddenly something crops up, an emergency as you are about to leave the ward, or a friend in need on the phone when you get home? You feel inside of you, ‘I have nothing left to give’, yet somehow you do, not knowing where the strength comes from.

I have small children, and after a long day at work, feeling all I want to do is curl up with a book or in front of the telly and rest, my children instead demand attention, play, and someone to share their day’s triumphs and disasters with. I somehow have the strength, even at the end of myself to do this, and take joy in it.

Maybe sometimes we don’t find we have that extra bit of strength at the end of ourselves, because there really is nothing else left to give, and afterwards we feel ashamed because there was more that we should have done for that patient or friend. We are, after all, only human.

But God offers us something remarkable. When we get to the end of ourselves, we find He is there waiting for us with Eagle’s wings to lift us. Paul exulted in this miracle of grace when he wrote ‘He [Jesus] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me’ (II Corinthians 12: 9).

So, when you come to the end of your human resources, as so often we all do, do not despair. Because that is when, if we call upon Him, God meets us with a supply of something greater than our human strength, something more powerful and miraculous than all we can accomplish by our effort. Then we too can rejoice like Paul in our weakness, because through it, God’s strength is seen.

Further Reading
II Corinthians 11: 29; 12: 5
Genesis 49: 24 - 25
Philippians 4: 13