“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ~2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)
2 Corinthians 12 is where Paul discusses his infamous “thorn in the flesh”. There have been many speculations of what exactly Paul’s “weakness” or “thorn in the flesh” was. My grandfather used to tell me if that had been the important part of the chapter, God would have put it in there. He believed the message was not to find out what tormented Paul, but to discover what torments us and to come to terms with it. That’s what Paul did, he trusted the Lord that no matter what came his way, God’s grace was going to be enough. Paul believed that the more he was able to come to terms with His weaknesses, the more He would lean on God’s strength and the more He would see the power of God operating in His life. Therefore, when “insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties” came his way, he was able thank God in them. What do you believe you are incapable of? That is a great place for faith to begin. If we could make it all happen ourselves, what would we need faith in God for? Yet that is how we act most of the time. You know you can overcome because you have already overcome so much. We grow from faith to faith. You might not remember overcoming your apprehensions and fears to get on the swing but the next thing you knew you were ready to start swinging higher. Overcoming fear and living by faith is our destiny as believers. When we step out in faith, receiving God’s peace and resting in His victory, we attract others to Him. That’s what the Lord meant when He said we must come to Him as a little child. We must come to Him with childlike faith! Do others see you living an overcoming life? If not, it’s not God who isn’t coming through. It’s your faith in God.
It's time we see more of God’s power operating in our lives. It's time we start believing that no matter what comes our way today, God’s grace will be enough for us to make it through. God knows all about our weaknesses even before we do, and He still promises His grace will meet us where we are and make up the difference for what we are not. I heard a pastor one time say that he had a man come to him who was having a difficulty with quitting smoking. The pastor told him every time he lit a cigarette to thank the Lord that He was helping him to quit. So, the man did. The pastor said it didn’t take long for the power of God to show up in that weakness for the man. We believe what we say. We put our faith to work when we confess our weaknesses and couple them with the understanding that God loves us and wants to help us become all He created us to be and to conform to His image. God's power will show up in our lives every time if we will just trust that His grace is sufficient. Hold firmly to the faith you profess!
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. ~Hebrews 4:14-16 (NIV)
What do you need that you are incapable of bringing about without the Lord?
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