35

I decided to make a list of 35 things to thank God for as I turn 35. I couldn't stop at 35!

Trust and Obey

Just remember: the Lord wants His will and mission and purpose to be accomplished in your life more than you do. And as you abide in Him, as you are totally surrendered to Him, He will lead and guide and direct your steps. You go through the obedience of what God puts in front of you day by day by day by day. And trust that He is going to lead and guide those steps in a way that will make His glory known in wonderfully creative ways.

- David Platt, Finish the Mission

Jesus is our strength

"We are free to confess weakness because Jesus is our strength." - Paul David Tripp, Lead

Grace and Gratitude

Be grateful to your gracious God.

It has been truly said that in the New Testament the doctrine is grace and the ethic - that is, the prescribed behaviour - is gratitude. And the gratitude is prompted by both the knowledge of the grace of Christ in one's head and the power of that grace in one's heart, with Christ as the centre of attention at all times in both.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Giving to God should ever express unending gratitude for almost unbelievable grace.

- J. I. Packer, Weakness Is the Way: Life with Christ Our Strength

Weakness Is the Way

My own recognition that the Christian way of life and service is a walk of weakness, as human strength gives out and only divine strength can sustain and enable, may well be rooted in my youth. A solitary and rather somber child, I had to wear at school, for ten years, a black aluminum patch covering a hole in my head, the result of a road accident, and hence I was unable to play outdoor games. During those years I felt out of most of what mattered, which is of course one form of the feeling of weakness.

This sense of things, sinful as it is in many ways, has hovered in the background throughout my life, and it has certainly been deepened over the past three years by the experience of a hip disintegrating (two years of hobbling and wobbling discomfort, leading to a year of steady but slow recovery from its surgical replacement). I was told that since the surgery was invasive, its initial impact would be to shock the system - like being knocked down in the street by a truck - and full recovery for mind and body would take time, with creativity (in my case, power to write) at first noticeably in abeyance.

During these three years, my firsthand awareness of physical and cognitive weakness has grown, as has my acquaintance with Satan's skill in generating gloom and discouragement. My appreciation of 2 Corinthians has also grown, as I have brooded on the fact that Paul had been there before me, and this little book is the result. Its contents have helped me, and I hope will help others too. 

- J. I. Packer, Weakness Is the Way: Life with Christ Our Strength