God All-Sufficient

Today I shuffled into Sunday school--and I mean shuffled. My back has gone on strike, determined that I no longer take all that it does for me each day for granted. Just this morning, I tried to lean over the washing machine and move the wet clothes into the dryer. But my old aching back shouted, "Not so fast, Ms. Big Stuff! Ha! You think you can pick up those socks on the floor--think again! You figure you can walk the dog or unload the dishwasher without ME, your poor, old, pitiful, ignored back? No way! It's about time somebody around here starting appreciating me!" And it is true, how much we take for granted every single day. Boy, how nice it would be to be able to get up and down into a chair without pain. Or be able to carry the laundry upstairs or pick up shoes and clothes and clean the house (funny how things that we normally resent become so much more precious when we can no longer do them).

I must admit, a battle was being waged within me today--will I choose to indulge in a pity party over my "light and momentary affliction" or would I choose to fix my eyes on Jesus and choose gratitude? As I shuffled slowly along the greenway with Moses this morning, I would alternately wince with pain at any little misstep, pining away at all those runners zooming past us but then I would ask the Lord to help me choose thankfulness and dependence upon Him. He would remind me what a blessing it was to be able to see the brilliant yellow and orange and red leaves and breathe the chilly clean air and listen to His Word being proclaimed on my iPod.

And then He reminded me of my favorite people this time of year--the pilgrims. Wonder what a pilgrim mama would do if her back ached? Or her child developed a raging fever? No medicine. No hot baths. No soft sofas or firm mattresses or warm comforters. No warm homes with lamps by which to read and relax. No hot tea, no respite from the unrelenting toil, and no chocolate. O heaven help them, no chocolate!

And yet those pilgrim mamas and daddies persevered and managed to give thanks--because their eyes were fixed not on what was seen but on what was unseen. Not on the temporal but the on the eternal. Not on all they had lost but on all their God had provided. Not on their insufficiencies but on the Lord's all-sufficiency.

I have so loved reading the collection of Puritan prayers from The Valley of the Vision. May this prayer of theirs, in which they beseeched "God All-Sufficient" so many years ago, also be ours today:

O Lord of grace,

The world is before me this day,

And I am weak and fearful,

but I look to Thee for strength;

If I venture forth alone I stumble and fall,

but on the Beloved's arms I am firm as the eternal hills;

If left to the treachery of my heart I shall shame Thy Name,

but if enlightened, guided, upheld by Thy Spirit,

I shall bring Thee glory.

Be Thou my arm to support,

my strength to stand,

my light to see,

my feet to run,

my shield to protect,

my sword to repel,

my sun to warm.

To enrich me will not diminish Thy fullness;

All Thy lovingkindness is in Thy Son,

I bring Him to Thee in the arms of faith,

I urge His saving Name as the One who died for me.

I plead His blood to pay my debts of wrong.

Accept His worthiness for my unworthiness,

His sinlessness for my transgressions,

His purity for my uncleanness,

His sincerity for my guile,

His Truth for my deceits,

His meekness for my pride,

His constancy for my backslidings,

His love for my enmity,

His fullness for my emptiness,

His faithfulness for my treachery,

His obedience for my lawlessness,

His glory for my shame,

His devotedness for my waywardness,

His holy life for my unchaste ways,

His righteousness for my dead works,

His death for my life.

Amen and amen. That just about says it all, doesn't it? To think that He gives His abundance, His fullness, His faithfulness, His obedience, His love, His glory, His life to you, to me. He gives it freely, willingly, joyfully and gives it exchange for our filthy rags of shame and guilt and deceit and selfishness and sin. His worthiness for our unworthiness. His fullness for our emptiness. His glory for our shame. His death for our life. For life--abundant, full, eternal, joyous. And so all we can humbly and simply say is "Yes, Lord. Thank You Lord." To You be the glory.