Thoughts
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The Blessing Of Burdens
Read: 2 Corinthians 12:1-9
"Most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
--2 Corinthians 12:9
There's a story about an old grandfather clock that had stood for three generations in the same corner of a room, faithfully ticking off the minutes and hours, day after day. In the clock was a heavy weight that was pulled to the top each night to keep it running.
Then one day the clock was sold, and the new owner noticed the heavy weight. "Too bad," he said, "that such an old clock should have to bear so great a load." So he took the weight off the chain. At once the clock stopped ticking.
"Why did you do that?" asked the clock.
"I wanted to lighten your burden," said the man.
"Please put it back," said the clock. "That's what keeps me going!"
Most people are looking for an easy way through life. They think that if they had no burdens they could live pleasantly and triumphantly. They don't realize that God often keeps us going spiritually by the weights that seem to pull us down. Trials can give our feet spiritual traction. Our burdens not only bring us blessing in this life, but they also are "working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. 4:17). --HGB
One day at a time, and the day is His day:
He has numbered its hours, though they haste or delay,
His grace is sufficient; we walk not alone;
As the day, so the strength that He gives to His own! --Flint
The heavier the load, the better the traction.