Boasting in Weakness

Hello Bloggers!

How are y'all doing. Things are good here... quite a change this week from the past two weeks. This past week (week 7) was good. I was just exhausted and honestly, I think so was the staff. It was neat to watch how the Lord provided just the right amount of strength and energy that I needed, but it was a bit scary because there were times when I doubted that He would come through... silly, unbelieving me. But something that the Lord reminded me of that I wrote for our staff blog and I want to share with you now, is the concept of actively boasting in our weakness.
I was reminded of the verse in 2 Corinthians 9:12 that says, "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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
The verse was just a great reminder that only when I am weak and cannot do it on my own is His strength made perfect. But then in the middle of writing this I was reminded that in James it says that faith without works is dead. And (honestly, it was the Lord that caused me to think any of this, nothing of my own), but the Lord reminded me that part of my faith is giving everything I have, and then giving more than I have trusting that He will provide the strength I need.
See, it gets really easy at camp to sit back and do nothing saying "Oh, I'm waiting on the Lord to provide strength for me" all the while not doing anything. And then when the strength never comes we wonder why God didn't provide the strength we needed. The truth is, He does provide, you just have to believe that He will provide. That mean jumping extra hard when I don't feel like it, or yelling extra loud when I don't feel like it, or serving with a genuine smile when all I want to do is be selfish. By continuing to push through and do the things I don't feel I have the energy to do, I am saying that I have faith that the Lord is going to provide so I will continue to display that faith through my works. You can say you have faith in something, but until you have to do an action with that faith, it is never really proven.
Also, last thing and I will run... I am beginning to realize more and more how truly selfish I am. I think selfishness mostly stems from the thinking that you deserve something. And I find myself thinking that, especially on the weekends. My thinking is, "I've been serving the families and staff all week, I deserve to do what i want to do, when I want to do it." But in reality, I don't deserve anything. I didn't even deserve life, but Christ overlooked what I deserved and gave me what I didn't deserve and instead took what I deserved instead. So who am I to complain and start demanding things. I don't deserve anything I've been given. So I pray that I would continue to remember that.

I hope y'all have a great week. My family is coming next week, which is super exciting!!!
Continue to pray for strength and endurance, and that I would continually be open to what the Lord wants to teach me. Sometimes the learning and breaking process is long, tiring, and painful and I just want to run away.
Have a great week!!

In Him,
Raychel