With the onset of this beautiful spring/summer weather recently, I decided it was time to wash the side porch of all the pollen, bugs, and spiders. I am ready to sit on the porch now and enjoy my Father’s World! I removed the furniture from the porch, dragged the garden hose onto the porch, and turned on the water. It was great to see all of the dirt and debris begin washing toward the door. Then I began spraying the water toward several spider's webs and egg sacs on the ceiling. The nozzle was turned to the “JET” propulsion so I knew it would not take long to bring those webs and sacs down!
Well, after several minutes of spraying direct hits toward these webs and sacs that wouldn’t let go, I found myself drenched! Those stubborn, blasted webs would NOT LET GO!! How in the world was that possible? I had the nozzle on the strongest propulsion and was bound and determined to sever those webs from wherever they were attached. It was me against them! Yet I found myself drenched, and YES, some webs were still attached. WHAT??!! Maybe I didn't watch enough Spiderman movies to learn about this?
What were these webs made of because it was simply beyond my thinking that they were that strong. To my amazement, I learned how really, really strong they are! Here is part of what I read:
Spider webs are made from silk. After millions of years of this process, some spiders today make silk that is very strong. We don’t usually notice just how strong they can be because they are amazingly thin. But the strongest silk, such as silk from a golden orb spider, is actually stronger than steel. Even more amazing, it is about 50 times as light….Even with the help of complicated machines and chemicals, humans still don’t know how to make a material this strong, stretchy, and light. Spiders are still the champions at this.
This took me completely by surprise. How can one small creature, such as a spider, produce an incredibly strong silk? Answer: God created them in this way so they could catch insects to eat. Survival! God gave spiders a way to catch their prey for food. And the silk they produced had to be very strong or the spider would not be able to catch what he/she needed.
So if God knows what the spider needs, doesn’t He know what we need? Does He know that we need this type of strength from time to time? Did He put that kind of strength in us? The strength of the spider’s web is consistent; it comes out very strong every time; the spider can count on his/her web catching dinner every day to take care of its needs.
Is God’s strength consistent, strong, and a provision for our needs? And what kind of strength are we talking about here? Physical, emotional, mental, social? Yes, we need strength for each of these areas of our lives.
But how do we know if He gave us enough? God, how do we know??
Recently I experienced trauma to my heart strings (not physical but emotional). It has been very, very difficult, and I have been wondering if God has given me enough of His strength to help me through. I feel like I could use a little more, but maybe I have enough. My head and my spirit tell me that God has given me enough, and He is right here with me. But my heart tells me that I need more. I’m not sure I can handle this.
Then God reassures me, as He does you, in Isaiah 41:10: “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” (NLT)
And in Philippians 4:13 - “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” (NLT)
His Word tells me that He has given me enough, and I need to use it wisely. I will continue to trust that He has given me enough because I need the strength of spider’s silk!
Thanks for stopping by,
Rachel
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