Here is day 2 with “scars” – If you had to choose between a life with no problems but Jesus was not present either ORRR a life that had troubles but Jesus was always with you, which would you choose? (You don’t have the third choice of no problems and Jesus is always present until you get to heaven.) For most of us the road we traveled to get to salvation with a beautiful relationship with Jesus included some bumps and bruises, some pot holes and pitfalls, and maybe even a few crashes in the ditch. If it weren’t for the troubles, we might not have ever turned to the Lord because life was too good without Him – or at least we thought it was. I don’t want to experience any more troubles in this life BUT neither would I trade the storms I’ve weathered because they helped lead me closer to Christ – from my new birth to where I am today still maturing in my faith. So in a way we are thankful for the scars, and we are all thankful for the scars in the hands and feet of Jesus. The song for today is entitled Scars by I Am They. It has a powerful message to help us have spiritual wisdom as we look back on our life and how the Lord has used difficulties to help us draw closer to Him.
Read Hebrews 12:4ff; II Corinthians 12:7-10 and then listen to Scars.
Hebrews 12:4-29
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order 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 by it.
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.