“I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13 NIV)

Every morning on the site where I like to play the game of Solitaire, there is a Daily Challenge.  Most days I whiz through it quickly becoming a winner.  But every once in a while a really challenging game comes up.  Sometimes I have to try a dozen or more timesbefore I finally achieve the correct sequence and I am proclaimed a winner.

The great thing about the game is that the Daily Challenge is always winnable. So, no matter how frustrated I may feel when I have to try over and over again, I am assured that there is a way to success.

Likewise, when God calls us to do something, we can rest assured that it can be done.  Many things are impossible for man alone, but with God as our helper, all things are possible.  Knowing this truth allows us to keep going, to keep trying, to keep praying, and to keep trusting by faith, resting assured that God will, in his time, reveal the way, the answer, the sequence of the plan, crowning us as winners. 

My family planned a winter vacation.  They also engaged a house/pet sitter to feed the wood stove and to care for their three dogs and cats.  I was thankful that they had made these arrangements as having to oversee the main house as well as having to have their dogs added to mine, in my already tiny house is extremely difficult and stressful during the winter months.  

Unfortunately, shortly after the family left on holiday, the house sitter’s husband became extremely ill.  This required me to drive her to Whitehorse to board thenext available flight home.  It also meant having to shoulder the tasks of house and pet sitting.  Initially I felt overwhelmed and annoyed.  Not that this was anyone’s fault for as Robert Burns wrote: the best laid plans of men and mice often go awry.  

My attitude soon did an about turn though when I asked God to show me the best way of dealing with these unexpected extra dogs and chores, and of course he did.  A plan evolved in my mind.  I put it into practice and the days flew by quickly and uneventfully until my family returned home.

Today each of us will face our own Daily Challenge which God will set before us.  It may seem humongous to us, or it may be much more miniscule in comparison, such as the one I have just described.  Whichever the case it will still be a challenge for us tonot only embrace, but also to claim the win amidst it. For as the apostle Paul discovered and we can discover too: I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. 

Prayer: Thank You Father God that we can always be winners amidst the challenges You set before us daily.  Challenges that we are assured through Your word that we can win, not in our own strength but through Christ who strengthens us.  In whose name we pray.  Amen.

Lynne Phipps
Atlin, British Colubma, Canada