IN CHRIST ALONE
1 Peter 5:6-7
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
It was the last day of our hunt in NW Ontario and I really hadn't gotten much time for myself to be out. It seemed like I was continually busy making sure everyone else had what they needed to be successful. It was late before I got out and found a place to sit over looking a narrow powerline through the woods. I was hoping to intercept one of the bears that had been going into the nearby campgrounds and tearing things up.
I hadn't been there for 3 or 4 minutes when I saw movement across the valley. Out stepped a beautiful chocolate brown colored black bear. I didn't think long and with a couple seconds I had fired my rifle. The bear ran off into the trees and disappeared. I waited a couple of minutes and snuck over to see what had happened. It didn't take long to find my trophy, he was just over the edge of the powerline. I was thrilled
It was then that I looked back towards where I was sitting and realized I had a major problem. I was looking up a very steep hill, covered in huge boulders and I was at the bottom by myself. All my hunting companions were 10-15 miles away across a lake. I began to get afraid that I wasn't going to be able to get this big bear back to camp. I tried and tried to move him towards camp, failing on my own with each attempt. I was discouraged and a little upset with myself.
Finally giving up, I left to pick up my hunting companions. When they heard I had gotten a good bear they were excited. When we got back to camp we walked back down into the valley and assessed the situation, with new, younger and fresher eyes, between us we figured we could cut a pole and lash the bear to the pole and share in the burden of carrying that bear back to camp. It worked. What was impossible for me, worked great when someone else had taken the weight and put it in their shoulders.
It's been a stressful week. We've been trying to prepare for our special hunts this weekend and in the meantime have been attending meetings all across the upper Great Lakes area. If you could look at the trail of our routes, I'm sure it would look somewhat like the a crooked, distorted star... It's been nonstop. We've been working on little time, little energy and what I was feeling was fewer resources.
Then I realized, we've got a Heavenly Father with every resource available. He can handle our little issues that we think are huge... It's nothing for Him. Why do we doubt His care for us or His abilities, why do we fear? When we allow our all-powerful God to lift the weight off of us and put! Åit on His own shoulders, there is no valley too deep that He can't get us out of.
Our Lord is an amazing God that has so much concern and care for us that we have no doubt and no fear if we just put our trust in Him. If you are struggling and in need of any kind, try to remember that our God is far bigger and stronger than anything that we are facing. There is nothing that is too hard or difficult for Him.
Billy Graham once said,
"We can be certain that God will give us the strength and resources we need to live through any situation in life that he ordains. The will of God will never take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us."
There is a great song by Stuart Townend that speaks to exactly this. IN CHRIST ALONE.
No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
There is no fear when we put our needs, our fears, our concerns and our problems... IN CHRIST ALONE.
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