All Things Through Christ

We want to have control of our lives.  We want to make the decisions.  Whenever there is a problem we want to fix it.  But there are situations in our lives that we cannot fix.  When we are faced with those times we run to God.  But why do we only run to God in those times?  Why does it take a time of helplessness to remind us of all that God can do in our lives?

You could say I had an interesting 4th of July weekend.  Saturday was great. I got the garage cleaned out.  I had a good time relaxing with the family.  And I was looking forward to going to the Cardinals game with my wife on Sunday.  Morning came and getting ready for church was a little stressful.  But when isn’t getting a toddler and a baby ready to go to church a little stressful?  We enjoyed the guest speaker at church, dropped the kids off at the in-laws and headed down to the game.

Great game.  The Cardinals won 7-1.   Wainwright pitched a complete game with less than 100 pitches.  And the breeze that was coming through our section out of nowhere made the 90° weather bearable.  But it was partway through the game where things got interesting.   Between the 2nd and 3rd innings my mother-in-law called.  My daughter had a temperature of 103.2°.  We were flabbergasted.  This came out of nowhere.  She hadn’t acted out of sorts at all that morning.  We knew she would be OK at my in-laws, but we were still a little anxious for the rest of the game.

All that night and the next morning my daughter had a fever that hovered between 101° and 103° depending upon how recently she had been given Tylenol.  She was still her normal, playful self for most of the day.  But when she woke up from her nap Monday afternoon things were different.   She was moody and somewhat lethargic.  She picked at her dinner and barely ate anything.  And then she threw up.  I felt helpless.  The only thing I could do to help was to rub her back.

We spent the rest of the night watching TV on the couch.  She laid her head in my lap and barely moved.  She tried to have a little milk and threw up again.  The only thing she could keep down was watered down Gatorade and we had to force her to drink it.   She was miserable.  And what could we do?  Nothing but pray for her healing and have trust that God will answer that prayer.  It was one of those times helpless times.  And we ran to God.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”
Philippians 4:13

Whenever I have heard someone teach on this verse it has always been approached from the angle of God helping us through the times where we can’t do it on our own.  His strength is there to support us when we can’t stand on our own.  His ability is there to help us accomplish tasks that we aren’t able to do. But to me, we’re leaving a word out of the verse.  We’re thinking of it as “I can do things through Christ who strengthens me.”   What happened to doing all things through Christ.

We need to start focusing on the word ALL!   Why aren’t we relying on him to help us in everything, even with tasks we can accomplish on our own?   The answer is simple, Pride.  You are more than able to complete every task set before you, right?   But we're supposed to live our lives for the Glory of God.  And He does not receive any glory in our accomplishments?  Only those accomplishment in which we involve Him!  If we are not involving God in everything we do we're not allowing him the opportunity to receive glory.

This applies to every area of our life.  Think of every way that we can ask God to be involved in our lives: Wisdom in raising our kids.   Hospitality to our guests.  Peace in stressful times.   Perseverance through problems.   Humility and Meekness in our areas of strength.  Grace in our areas of weakness.  Strength in our times of struggle.  And Healing for a little girl who loves Him.

My little girl has still spent the past few days with a fever, but to see her running around you wouldn't know that she's ill.  God will give you a little Joy when you need it, too.