Where does your strength come from?

If I were to poll different people on this question, I know I would receive many different answers.  Here are some you might hear: I come from a long line of strong and independent people.  I am self-made, I am strong from all of the hard-knocks I have received in life.  I choose to be strong, I made up my mind that I would be, and so I am.

And I would agree that in those statements there is some truth, if you solely looked at it from a human standpoint and took God out of the equation.  And if you put God into the equation, you could still say those things but they might sound a bit different if you could hear the whole story.

You see, I could say a lot of those things but I would like to share with you the rest of the story.  I am proud of my heritage and my parents and grandparents and great grandparents they have amazing stories, they were/are some of the strongest people I know.

I could also tell you I have faced a lot of hard and challenging things in life.  I could gather you in and tell you stories of heart ache and heart break.  I could also tell you that I chose to rise up and face the obstacles that could have turned me into a bitter and angry person.  That I chose to be thankful and grateful and to focus on blessings instead of curses.  Again, all of those are part of the truth but not an accurate view of my history, or I will say His(Story).

You see, on September 9, 1967, my story became God's story when my parents brought me to the waters of Baptism.  I became God's child and my life changed forever.  I cannot separate who I am from God because I belong to Him.
My parents taught me from a young age to trust Jesus with all things.  I can tell you from my 48 plus years of experience there were times I wondered what was going on...could I really trust Him to work things out.  And time after time God has amazed me with what He has done and how He has worked things out.

During those time of waiting and wondering...I remembered the stories of my Grandparents and my parents of how they trusted God above all things.  I read the Word and the stories of how God took the impossible and made it possible.

Most of all, I remembered and took comfort in the fact that God took the biggest problem the world has ever faced, SIN.  And how Jesus conquered that problem on the cross for you (even if you don't believe it) and for me.  I have been given the gift of eternal life because of what He did for me.  Sin still causes problems in this world but I know the ONE (Jesus) who took care of it.  And so while I wait for all of the challenges of life to sort themselves out, I will continue to trust Jesus.

I love this song.  These two young children have incredible voices.  But as I listen to this song, it is like a modern day Psalm in which I am singing to the One who has raised me up and given me the strength to face all things, Jesus my Lord and Savior.