Start Your Year, Start Your Day



January 29, 2010
Philippians 4:13

13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13 (NLT)


Do you ever feel like saying, "if I only had a little more time or energy I could get so much more done"? Sometimes as a mom, I feel that if I had a big red "S" on the front of my shirt I might be able to do everything: laundry, house work, keeping up with the kids and my husband, and just every day life. Hey, I can dream, right?

As Christians we have something even better. A savior who wants to give us his unlimited strength. Have you ever known a believer who is going through something and you wonder how they are able to make it through? Or just how some people seem to always be able to handle things? The Bible says that we can do anything through Christ who gives us strength. That doesn't mean that we won't go through tough times or have bad things happen to us, but it does mean that if we rely on Christ for our strength and not ourselves he will give us the strength we need. How do we get this strength? It is kind of a common theme through out Philippians: have the mind of Christ. We can have the mind of Christ by spending time with him daily in prayer and in his word.

So as much as I would like to be Super Mom, it will never happen. But I can have the strength of a God who loves me so much he died for me. I think we get the better deal!
 

A Thankful Thought


I could be thankful if...

The Pilgrims didn’t have too much of anything, did they? They had no transportation, no indoor plumbing, no hot fudge sundaes and they didn’t even have nice homes. Yet they saw reasons to give thanks to God for the many blessings they did have.

What were some of the blessings He gave to the them? Well, for starters, God let them get to America safely and He gave them the wisdom to know what they had to do and the courage do it.
This story comes to mind.

A woman went to an art gallery to find a couple of paintings for her newly decorated home, and she took her 10-year-old daughter with her. While the mother was busy looking, the daughter went off by herself to look at a few of the paintings.

A few moments later, the mother saw the daughter staring at a painting of an old man sitting at a small table; his hands were clasped in prayer with a single loaf of bread in front of him. It was obvious the girl didn’t understand what the painting meant.

She asked the mother, “Why is he praying? He only has bread but doesn’t have anything else to go with it.” The mother explained that he was giving thanks because he had the bread, which is more than some people have.

And that shows what we all tend to do. In the middle of abundance, we concentrate on the lack. Maybe that seems to be an unfair statement, but I believe that we spend too much time thinking that we could be happier “if”: "If" we had some of this, or "if" we had more of that.

When we see somebody with some very good blessing in their life, don’t we sometimes have a tendency to be a little jealous? We know that we are just as good of a person as they are, and sometimes we are even better, aren’t we? So why do they have it and we don’t? That is how children react, and maybe that is why we are called God’s children... I don’t know. The one thing I do know is I could be way more thankful than I am. Sometimes we want God to provide all our wants instead of just our needs. 

A NewSpring Staff Member

 


Your Comments

1

Connie | January 29, 2010 at 12.30 pm

These thoughts from Philippians have been hitting me right where I live.  Thank you!

2

Deeds | January 29, 2010 at 01.23 pm

This message hit me right in the kisser. I needed to hear these words. Life is pretty intense right now and I was just thinking - can I really keep this going? And then - POW - I read this and it hits me….I can keep going because God gives me strength.  I love Start Your Day!


Add a Comment

Name:


Email:


Comment: