Strengthen Your Feeble Arms And Weak Knees  6-25-06

Read Hebrews 12:1-12

Key verses: Hebrews 12:10-12
Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however; it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained for it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and week knees.

This is God’s word of encouragement to us to lift up our hands of faith, and confirm our knees in prayer. Often our faith grows relaxed, and our prayers lose their force and effectiveness. The Interpreter’s One-Volume commentary on the Bible explains that Jesus , the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, needed the utmost of courage and stamina for his strenuous ministry. He has broken the trail for us, and He also enables us to follow his path. His mission in life required great personal effort. He needed motivation, even as we do. His motivation was the joy of doing God’s will.

There are a lot of things going on around us. Helen Mundis wrote in Forbes

magazine: If you want to be safe on the streets at night, carry a projector and slides of your last vacation. The Times-News on Tuesday, reported that the number of violent crimes increased 5.8 percent in North Carolina last year. There were 582 murders, 2,265 rapes, and 348,509 property crimes reported by Attorney General Roy Cooper.

There are many ways to walk around this report on crimes. How often we come up against something that appalls us, and we want to evade the issue with the excuse: I am not quite ready for that now. So we are walking around it and saying to ourselves: Somebody’s got to do something.

God says: Lift up the hands that hang down. March straight through the flood, and lo, the waters will divide, the Red Sea will open, the Jordan will part, and the Lord will lead you through to victory.

In Matthew 21:21-22 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to this fig tree, but also say to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea, an it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

PRAYER: Dear God we have received a report on increasing violent crimes  and it appalls us. Keep us from walking around this problem and speak to us the things you want us to know and do. May our lives be an example to others of our spreading the love of Jesus. Amen

Luther McCollum