Making a Change, with God's strength

I decided to make a change...again.  Thank goodness for His new mercies every morning!

As I sat reading over our new bible study and preparing to facilitate this coming Tuesday, I realized several things. 
First of all, I am NOT a teacher.  I don't like to teach, I don't want to teach.  I already knew this, but was just reminded again.  I will bake you cookies any day of the week, but I will not teach.  Unless, of course, I'm asked.  Which I was.  So, here I am, preparing to "teach" our new bible study.  Teach really isn't the right word though.  I like to think of it as facilitating.  Merriam-Webster defines it as:  to make easier.  to help bring about.  I define it as:  reading the questions and letting others answer.  :)  I can read.  I can do this...with God's strength!  Moses is my best friend through this.  I keep remembering his words in Exodus 4:10-12
But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
THAT, my friends, is comforting to me!

I have also started a new weight loss program to hopefully get me off this ginormous plateau I've been walking on for the past two years.  I have taken my doctor's suggestion and finally bit the bullet and paid lots of money for someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong.  Not really what I wanted to do, but I wanted answers, so here I am.

I sat praying this morning, and one of my favorite verses kept creeping into my mind.

I can do all this through him who gives me strength.  Phil 4:13 

It got me thinking about God's strength.  When I think of strength, I think of someone flexing their arm muscles, because this is what I was taught in Sunday school, and I've watched it being taught in vacation bible school and Sunday school since.  But there is so much more we can take from this one verse and God's strength. 

For me, I am praying for both His physical strength and His spiritual strength.
I need His physical strength to help keep me on my weight loss journey and to guide me when I want to stray.  To give me the energy I need to be physically active.  To give me the strength I need when I want to give up. 
I need His spiritual strength to help me grow closer to Him.  To search for Him in all I do.  To learn the things He wants me to learn and to open my eyes so that I will see all these things.  He is working in our lives every day, every hour, every minute, but do we stop and realize that this is all from Him?  I know I don't. 

So, today my prayer is for strength that only comes from Him.  To do the things He wants me to do.  To learn the things He wants me to learn.  To slow down and really listen to what He wants for me. To become more like Him. 

As I was thinking of God's strength, I did a search on it in the bible and came across more of these wonderful verses about his strength:

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.  1 Peter 5:10


  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.  2 Corinthians 12:10


...but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.  Isaiah 40:31

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  Psalm 73:26

May you find a "word" or an attribute of God's that gives you comfort this week also!