Pastor and author, Ravi Zacharias, states that Annie Johnson Flint was one of the best hymn writers in history. He describes further how her life was anything from easy. “She got rheumatoid arthritis till she was twisted up in bed for many, many decades. She had cancer inside of her, she was incontinent and lived on diapers, and blindness started to overtake her.” Through all of her pain and suffering her faith only increased. One of the hymns that she wrote was “He Giveth More Grace.” The lyrics powerfully state how God is the world’s greatest provider and is more than capable of taking care of us through all the times of life He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater, He sendeth more strength when the labors increase; To added afflictions He addeth His mercy, To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, When our strength has failed ere the day is half done, When we reach the end of our hoarded resources Our Father’s full giving is only begun. Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision, Our God ever yearns His resources to share; Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing; The Father both thee and thy load will upbear. His love has no limits, His grace has no measure, His power no boundary known unto men; For out of His infinite riches in Jesus He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again. For non-Christians it may be hard to imagine anyone going through so much suffering in their life and uttering the last line of verse number 4: He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again. There is a story of a weak, old coal miner whose body had been ravaged by his many years of hard labor in the mines. In his humble home there was a table with a small bowl of thin porridge on it. Holding a piece of bread in his coal-stained hand, he was ready to eat his meager meal. But first he knelt beside the table, joyfully exclaiming over and over again: “All this, and Jesus too! All this, and Jesus too!” That is an amazing part of a life lived with Christ. The benefits of having Jesus as your Lord and Savior are too many to describe. All Christians have had difficulties in life and can tell their own story of how God has provided strength or peace. In my first book, Bible Verses in My Pocket , I describe problems and suffering that I have had with Crohn’s disease. I had surgery to remove part of my intestine, my appendix, and tumors. I ended up losing about 60 pounds, but even in my weak state I felt God’s strength and power all the more. It is great to remember that if God brought you to it, He will bring you through it. This of course does not mean that Christians will not experience trials throughout life, but that God will help and sustain us. Reference Stohlmann, M. (2017). The world's greatest provider. Seattle, WA: CreateSpace.
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Of all the things that God provides us in our lives, His undying love and grace are the most important. God’s love is unfailing, unending, unequaled, and indescribable. God loved us so much that He sent His one and only Son to earth to die on a cross to pay for our sins. Jesus gloriously rose from the dead and defeated the devil and death giving us the free gift of eternal life. We can trust in God’s love because it is pure and self-sacrificing. God has everything, but still loves us so much that He wants us to be with Him in heaven forever. Corrie ten Boom stated it this way. “The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that he gave his only Son. The only requirement is to believe in him. The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life.” Knowing that the all-powerful God loves us is a wonderful feeling! As a result of this, we have what we need for our life on earth until our work here is done. We can share God’s love with others because we have been richly blessed! We can praise His name our whole life! God is the world’s greatest provider because He takes care of all of our needs. In our time on earth we may still experience hardships including health, financial, and family problems. However, God has freely given Christians the only thing that they need; eternal life in heaven. Because of this we have joy, peace, and hope in our time on earth. Having Jesus as our Lord and Savior means that we are blessed beyond belief. Psalm 84:11 states, For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Based on this verse it might be easy to think that if a Christian is experiencing troubles then something must be wrong because the verse states, no good thing does he (God) withhold. Christians are certainly sinners and so our lives are not blameless. The beautiful thing is that because Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross, Christians are viewed by God as forgiven, holy, and blameless people. The Gospel message is a proclamation of prosperity that Christians will experience. Prosperity is not defined by earthly standards though. It is not wealth and health. It is the joy and peace of living life with the Holy Spirit as our constant companion and the blessed true knowledge of a place in heaven awaiting us. What God hath promised God hath not promised skies always blue,
flower-strewn pathways all our lives through; God hath not promised sun without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain. But God hath promised strength for the day, rest for the labor, light for the way, grace for the trials, help from above, unfailing sympathy, undying love. -Annie Johnson Flint |
Micah StohlmannChristian, author, and professor of mathematics education. Archives
May 2023
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