Galatians 6:9
And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up.
Last August, for our 13th wedding anniversary, my husband bought me a bicycle. I had never really been a big fan of riding. I had bought a bike about 10 years ago, but riding while 6 months pregnant wasn’t very comfortable, so I sold my bike. This time around, however, I have found a new love for bicycling. It’s like a little mini-vacation that I can take whenever I feel like it. I get to ride these glorious Wisconsin country roads and take in the sights and sounds that transport me back to childhood.
Last week before one particular ride I looked at a map, chose my route, estimated how long it would take me and hit the road. The map I looked at was not topographical. I had ridden part of this route before, so I knew that there was one monster hill right at the beginning of the ride. I was ready for it and I defeated it fairly easily. Then I moved on to a part of the ride that was unfamiliar to me. As I was flying down the other side of the first hill feeling very accomplished, I saw what appeared to be the side of a barn way ahead of me. But, it was not a barn. It was the road. It shot up suddenly and seemed to touch the sky. I laughed out loud and started to talk to the hill. “Seriously? What in the world? How do people drive up this road in the winter? Is there another way? Nope…I have to do this…”
And I did. It was hard. I was out of breath and very sweaty, but I did it. I was in my lowest gear and moving very slowly, but I didn’t quit. I conquered the hill. I would NOT have been able to conquer the hill this time last year. My legs would’ve given out and I wouldn’t have been able to breathe. I was able to do it only because I have been riding a lot, purposefully choosing long routes with hills so I would get stronger. So, when this hill jumped up out of nowhere, I was ready.
One thing that I LOVE about God is His ability to change us. To make us new. He gives us strength to live a Godly life here on earth now, and hope for eternity with Him. He loves us so much that He has given us everything that we need in this life to live for Him. His grace is sufficient for us! His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses! I am strong because I love Him and He lives in me. It’s His strength that is strong in the place of my weakness.
2 Peter 1:2 Do you want more and more of God’s kindness and peace? Then learn to know him better and better. 3 For as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life: he even shares his own glory and his own goodness with us!
God’s plans for us are for good. He wants to work in us and through us. When times are hard and we feel that we are always going uphill and against the wind, let’s remember that He has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness. He wants us to succeed, so He has given us His Holy Spirit! The more we chose Him, the stronger we become.
Ephesians 3:17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; 18-19 and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself.
20 Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. 21 May he be given glory forever and ever through endless ages because of his master plan of salvation for the Church through Jesus Christ.