My “Word of the Year” for 2019 is “everything.”  It requires a bit of explanation, but I’ll get to that in a minute.  In the PowerSheets Facebook group, there’s been some talk about how there’s often another Lesson under the surface of the word chosen for the year — and I’m already seeing some of that lesson surface.

What is “everything”?

To get to this lesson, I have to first go back to the beginning and talk about how and why I chose this word.  See, it’s actually my own personal paraphrase of a Hebrew word.  The word, me’od, is translated as “strength” in Deuteronomy, in the passage known as the “Shema” (“hear”).

“Hear, O Israel: Yhwh your God, Yhwh is one.  And you shall love Yhwh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength…” (Deut. 6:4-5)

But strength means more than merely “strength.”  In the Bible Project video, “muchness” is one term that’s used.  In parts of the Old Testament, the word is translated “riches.”  In some cases (as here), it’s translated “strength.”  Basically, it means all of your resources, or all that is at your disposal, or your full capacity.  Or, as it plays out in my head,  everything you have — i.e. ,”all your everything.”

Even My Weakness

As I’ve planned out goals and the like for the first part of the coming year, it has become apparent that the main focus for this quarter demands that I offer up my weakness.  It’s certainly part of “everything I have,” but how ironic!  “With all my strength,” in this case, means “with all my weakness.”  And yet we’ve heard this message before.

“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:9-10)

Oh, the Irony (When Weakness is Strength) is a post from: Titus 2 Homemaker

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