{"id":30858,"date":"2022-08-17T09:33:53","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T13:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=30858"},"modified":"2022-09-13T13:05:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T17:05:50","slug":"pastors-ponderings-using-all-your-strength-8-16-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=30858","title":{"rendered":"Pastor’s Ponderings: Using ALL Your Strength (8\/16\/22)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor Jim sent out the below devotional thoughts on August 16, 2022…<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Greetings:<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
\n\u00a0
\nPLEASE READ: Zechariah 4:6<\/a>…<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.<\/span>“<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

PLEASE READ: 2 Chronicles 32:7-8<\/a>…<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPLEASE READ: Philippians 4:13<\/a>…<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n~~~<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes life can be challenging, even difficult. Just simple day-to-day living, doing our best, can make us feel frustrated. Try as we might, sometimes the challenges of life seem to be too much. \"\"<\/p>\n

Yet our faith reminds us that God is always ready to help us and give us what we need as long as we reach out to God and use the tools available to us. As we trust God, trust God’s promises, trust that the Holy Spirit will empower us, we find the challenges of life are easier to deal with.<\/p>\n

Please allow me to share a wonderful story which succinctly reminds us how to use\u00a0all of our strength. As you read the story see if you haven’t felt like the young boy; I know I have.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I pray that through this humble offering we all will be encouraged and will use all of the strength available to us.<\/p>\n

The story is of a little boy and his father who were walking along a road when they came across a large stone. The boy looked at the stone and thought about it a little. Then he asked his father, “Do you think if I use all my strength, I can move that rock?”\u00a0\u00a0The father thought for a moment and said, “I think that if you use all your strength, you can do it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

That was all the little boy needed. He ran over to the rock and began to push on it. He pushed and he pushed so hard that little beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. But the rock didn\u2019t move \u2014 not an inch.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a while, the little boy just stopped and sat down on the ground. His face was full of sadness. His whole body seemed to be just a lump there on the earth. He was tired and he was disappointed.\u00a0 As he sat staring at the ground with tears welling up in his eyes the boy said to his Dad, “You were wrong, I can\u2019t do it.”\u00a0\u00a0His father walked over to him, knelt beside him, and put his arm around his son’s shoulder and said, “You can do it, son. You just didn\u2019t use all your strength. You didn\u2019t ask me to help.”<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Isn’t that a beautiful picture of us and God? We often try to achieve in life never reaching out to God or trusting God for His empowerment. What can we do in life, in our churches, in our communities, in the world if we relied upon God’s Holy Spirit, using “all of our strength”?<\/p>\n

Shalom,<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pastor Jim<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

+\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +<\/span><\/p>\n

For other Pastor’s Pondering articles, click this button:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pastor’s Ponderings<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We often struggle without reaching out to God or trusting Him for His empowerment. Imagine what we could do in life, in our churches, in our communities, and in the world if we relied upon God’s Holy Spirit, using “all of our strength”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[158],"class_list":["post-30858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pastors-ponderings","tag-godspower"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30858"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30883,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30858\/revisions\/30883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}