The Rudder

Real Estate has been my strength for two decades; I could sniff out the deal, turn a profit, list and sell everything I put my hand to. Now it is my thorn...

Sometimes our strength becomes a strong deterrent to trusting God. Many times when we rely on our own strength, resources and knowledge, we assume we can handle just about any situation without help from our heavenly father. Because of this, we tend to divide situations that arise into two categories; problems we think we can handle ourselves, and those that "require" Gods assistance. All the while Gods sits back and waits for us to seek him first in all things. I can almost hear him say "Your great at giving me all your problems, when are you going to start giving me your plans?"

Paul is a great example; he was a strong personality. He was a who's who of pharasies, highly educated and eloquent of words. After he got run out of Dodge a few times before he realized if he was to boast it should be about Christ and him crucified. Only in his weakness via the thorn in his side, whatever that was did he truly implicitly trust in the Lord. He asked many times for God to remove it, but God knew better. Why you ask? An illustration of that is when Hezekiah was dying and he begged God not to take him yet, so God did grant him another 15 years of life only to have the worst king in Israel's history, Manasseh, born during that time and rule thereafter as a result of that decision. Those next 55 years were the pits.

2 Corinthians 12:9- 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.

If you feel strong in one area of life, be careful. Often times it's one's strength that becomes the hinderence to trusting God. Sometimes God may bring a thorn to bring you to a point of weakness to where full trust and assurance can take root, and seeking him first is the first response.

Now, when it comes to real estate stuff I have to know that it's "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord"