God Makes The Weak Strong

God Makes The Weak Strong

Hammer your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Train even your weaklings to be warriors. Joel 3:10

I had been asked to stop by the nursing home to see an elderly patient who had become despondent. Catherine had recently had a stroke, but I knew she could recover from it. The problem was that she didn’t seem to want to.

When I entered the sparsely furnished room, Catherine looked ashen and pale—a rag doll wrapped in twisted sheets. She pulled the covers over her head when she saw me. I glanced at the nurses, and they nodded. Everything about her demeanor suggested she’d given up.

“Why are you hiding from us?” I asked. “We’re just trying to help you.”

Catherine mumbled something that I couldn’t hear. Her voice was barely audible—more like a whisper.

The reason she didn’t feel well had nothing to do with her stroke. She and Thomas, her husband of fifty years, had lost all their valuables in a flood a few years earlier. And recently, Thomas had gotten ill and died.

“I know you want to join Thomas,” I said, tenderly taking her hand. “But your time hasn’t come yet.”

The stroke hadn’t taken her life, but it had certainly disrupted it. Her speech was distorted, and the right side of her body was now weakened and crumbling before our eyes.

“God has further plans for your future with us. He wants you to pick up your plowshare and hammer it into a sword and fight for this new journey—this plan for your life.” I wasn’t sure why I said those words, or what they meant to her. But I hoped they would encourage her.

As we continued to talk, she took her fist and pounded the bed. After a few minutes, she pushed herself up and got out of bed. When I left, she was sitting in a chair by the window, where the sunshine could pour into her soul and dry her tears.

Catherine wasn’t transformed overnight, but God definitely performed a miracle in her life. I saw it, and so did the nursing staff. Catherine hammered away at her recovery until she was well enough to return home, strengthened and ready for battle.

TODAY’S RX

Never give up, and never give in to the whisper of despair. When you’re weak, allow God to make you strong for the fight.

Father, help me to keep my eyes on you when I’m weighed down with grief. I know it is when I am weak that you are strong. Thank you for revealing yourself in new ways to me during this time.