One More Step

Feeding the dogs one afternoon, I discovered that the storage box didn’t contain enough dog food to go around our pack. There was no assistance to be had from other members of the family, since they were all away working, so I had to replenish the supplies by myself. While the new bags weren’t miles away, I still had to carry the twenty two kilos some distance. Now this is not something I do every day and I was finding the bag heavy and slippery. As I closed the distance between me and the empty container I was losing my grip.

With each step I prayed, “Lord please help with these last few steps.” I was thinking that often I have asked God to do things for me instead of giving me the strength, imagination and determination to finish a job or to get through a difficult time.

God doesn’t promise to make our lives easy. In fact the bible tells us that as Christians our lives are going to be very difficult. Mathew 5:11 says “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

I remember the first time that I realised that Paul got exhausted during his missionary journeys (2 Corinthians 1:8) and yet he was still able to say “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).

Extending the muscles in my body strengthens them and yes I know that I will be in pain for a day or two but eventually they will be stronger. The same goes for my spiritual muscles, the more they are used the stronger they will get. Thank you God, for the daily spiritual workouts.