The Champion in me...in you...

I hear these 'pep' talks all the time. Oprah and the many motivational speakers/writers out there all testify to that 'champion' in all of us. Blogs flourish with formulas and nicely laid out plans to fulfilling dreams.
Yeah, yeah.
All empty rhetoric for me for it speaks to the sufficiency of man.

Yes, there is a Champion in me, but it has nothing to do with my efforts or achievements or attitudes.
However, it has everything to do with my submission to the Master Sculptor, chiselling away at my life.
Honestly, at times I feel, is there going to be anything left? I feel so bare.

I believe that all these years of leanness for me, emotionally, financially, spiritually, mentally, have been to show me that "My God is my Sufficiency". Yet, I do not live as if I believed that. I lack that radiance that Psalm 34:5 speaks about. (Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.)
I look in the mirror and see a face covered in shame and at the same time I struggle each day to 'look' to Him.
In fact, in recent times, I had begun to feel that this was all that God had planned for me, that this was all I deserved. The Enemy is real. He subtly and overtly tries to kill you.
But my God is even more real to me and I never give up on going to Him. And I did, I do. That last song, "My Heart Is Fragile" is a prayer to Him from me.

Today, He sent a 'word' from Bishop Kenneth Ulmer speaking on his book "The Champion In You".
....excerpt...

There was a very famous sculptor who one day instructed his servant to bring into his workroom this huge mass of unfinished marble covered with dust - a rugged looking piece of marble. He pulled it in and pulled it in and finally the servant said, "Master, what will you make of this unattractive mud- and dust-covered mass of marble?"

The sculptor backed up and looked at it this way and looked at it that way and looked at it this way again and looked at it that way again, and then he said, "I see a magnificent stallion. I see a stallion with glaring eyes and flared nostrils and flowing mane. I see encased in this mass of unattractive marble, a magnificent stallion.

The servant said, "Well master, how will you get such a masterpiece out of this unattractive dust- and mud-covered mass of marble?"

The sculptor said, "Well, I'm going to take my hammer and I'm going to take my chisel and I'm going to begin to chip away and chip and away and chip away and chip away and I'll chip away everything that does not look like a horse. There's a horse in there and when I get rid of everything that does not look like a horse, I'll have a masterpiece."

God says he wants to conform you into the image of his Son to release the champion in you. And those times when it seems as though life is battering you, and your experiencing pain and sorrow and confusion and disappointment and discouragement and even failure,. God says, "I'm going to chip away everything in your life that does not look like a champion so that when I finish, the champion in you will come forth. There is a champion in you." ...

This is so chock-full of God's truth, I want you to read it in its entirety or listen, so I invite you to go HERE right now if you need to hear God's voice, if life's circumstances have you bowed down, in that foetal position crying out for help.
It is NOT over. Satan has not had the checkmate.
The King has the final move. The King is ready to reposition you to His glory.
God also reaffirmed His Word as I popped by my friend and mentor, Lidj, as she wrote on a "Divine Repositioning".

At the same time, God brought a song from my youth back to my lips:
And I Thank You Lord

And I Thank You Lord
For the trials that come my way
In that way I can grow each day
As I let You lead

And I thank You Lord
For the patience those trials bring
In the process of growing
I can learn to care

But it goes against the way I am
To put my human nature down
And let the Spirit take control of all I do
'Cause when those trials come
my human nature shouts the things to do
And God's soft prompting can be easily ignored

But I thank You Lord
With each trial I feel inside
That You're there to help, lead and guide
me away from wrong

'Cause You promised Lord
That with every testing
That Your way of escaping is easier to bear

Yes, I thank You Lord
For the victory that growing brings
In surrender of everything
Life is so worthwhile
And I thank You Lord
That when everything's put in place
Out in front I can see Your face
And it's there You belong 

Here it is being sung by the Continentals: