More Than One

I’ve needed some affirmation. April was a great month, most of May, too. The last of May was difficult and June is not starting well at all.

When we returned from our marvelous vacation, Beloved Husband’s graft was plugged and his plasmapheresis delayed until a thrombectomy was done. Three weeks later, at his next plex (the shortened version), another blood clot blockage and a trip scheduled to the hospital for another thrombectomy (sorry – some medical terms don’t take to being shortened.) Which delays his plex for another week.

June is Myasthenia Gravis Awareness Month. It certainly has our attention, and we’ve been aware of the disease since September, 2011. We will be aware of it the rest of our lives. Sometimes it becomes difficult and decisions musts be made. Turning to scriptures is a help and I ran across a page with the above graphic – only a clip from the page, and the graphic is linked to the page.

However, I want to stress that the questions we say, such as “I am not able,” have more than one answer in the Bible. Here is given Luke 18:27, which reads in full:

And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. (Luke 18:27 KJV)

That “with God” part is very important, and it is part of another verse that enables us:

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (2 Corinthians 9:8 KJV)

There more than single verses that give us hope – if we read them, believe them, study them and depend on the Lord who provided them. That “sufficiency in all things” comes after other verses:

Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness. But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:5-7 KJV)

Paul’s letter was written to Christians, not to the unsaved. It was written to a church, exhorting them in this chapter to respond to a request for funds. Some, then, look at verse at as a tit-for-tat agreement that if we give bountifully God will reward us.

Not so quick. Verse 8 states that God is able, through His grace, to provide sufficiently for us. No action on our part is required. However, He may abound to good works. That is still His call.

It takes more than one verse for us to understand God’s work in our lives, and there is more than one verse that provides directions to God’s path for all men. We should never build our faith on a single verse, never on one study session.

It is not easy, as evidenced in verses in Luke 18:

For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? (Luke 18:25-26 KJV)

No one – without God. Those important words in verse 27, “with God.” The Bible also explains the who and the how:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 KJV)

That gives me hope – that it is true, and the other promises are, too.