“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
We all feel weak from time to time; when we do, we must hold tightly to the promise we have in Christ. Read on and be encouraged today, especially if this message finds you in a season of weariness and weakness.
As Christians, we know about the strength of Almighty God. He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. He spoke everything into existence, and if He were to withdraw His hand at any moment in time, everything would cease to exist.
Do you know when God’s strength is demonstrated most vividly and effectively in our personal lives? It is when His strength intersects with our weakness. Our human frailty has been a fact of life from the moment sin entered into our humanity in the Garden of Eden. Because of Adam and Eve’s dreadful act of cosmic treason, we all received the wages of sin, which is death. We are all dying at the rate of sixty minutes an hour.
Sometimes our weakness presents itself in our distress and difficulties; at other times it appears in our struggles and storms. But regardless of the challenges we may be facing, we possess the source of supernatural strength to rest in and rely on, because when we are weak, He is strong to work in our lives (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Here is a very important point for you and I to remember: The promise of His strength in our weakness does not mean that God will remove the source of our struggle. Jesus assured us that we will experience trials, troubles, and tribulations in this world. We read in the Scriptures that our Lord was “a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3). But in the midst of our struggles, we must remember that He also assured us that He has overcome this world, and so we have a greater power at work within us than any power that can come up against us. Jesus does not remove the storms from our lives, but He strengthens us in the middle of them. That way, when we emerge on the other side of the storm, we are more conformed to His image than we were before.
Are you being buffeted by storm winds today? How would you describe the witness of your weakness? Please understand that there is nothing wrong or unbiblical about asking God to remove the storm. Paul prayed three times that God would remove his “thorn” (2 Corinthians 12:7-8). But when God does not remove our own thorn, whatever it may be, we must understand and accept that the storm has been delivered to help us decrease and for Jesus to increase in our lives. This is the process of sanctification; God is bringing us to the end of ourselves as we make our way through this life and making us more and more like Jesus.
Let your heart be filled with hope, because you can rest in God’s promise that “My grace is sufficient for you” — regardless of the storms you are facing!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 