“Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” — 2 Corinthians 12:8–9
Remember when Paul was having a bad day? He told us all about it in 2 Corinthians 12:7–10. God had given Paul a great vision of heaven, the kind that could make a person think he’s really something special, but God also made sure Paul didn’t get too arrogant. God gave him a “thorn in the flesh.” We don’t know exactly what the thorn was. Maybe Paul had some inner struggles with the fact that he used to be such a sinner; maybe he had people in his life giving him a hard time; maybe he had a physical ailment; who knows what the thorn really was? What we do know is that he begged God to take the thorn from him, but God wouldn’t. Why wouldn’t God take the thorn away? He was showing Paul that His grace is enough. Paul learned the lesson, too. He went on to say that he was content in his weakness and he even boasted about it because it provided the opportunity for Christ’s strength to shine through him all that much more!
So, what about you? Have you found God’s grace to be enough? Try this sometime: in your mind and in your heart, give everything you care about to God, I mean everything. Give Him your house, car, bank account, retirement plans. Give Him your career goals and your accomplishments. Give Him your friends and your family. Give Him your kids. Give Him your parents. Give Him everything you are and everything you ever hoped to be, your entire life. In your mind and heart give away everything you can think of except your relationship to God through Christ. In other words, give away everything except God’s grace. If you do this exercise the right way, it will be one of the hardest things you ever do in your life, but I believe that once you do, you’ll find out something amazing. You’ll find out what Paul found out, that God’s grace is enough. You will find that God, through Christ, has given you infinitely more than you could ever desire in this life. You will find that your greatest strength is weakness in comparison to God and that your greatest weakness is nothing but an opportunity for Him to show His strength through you. So, I challenge you, give God everything you have, and you will realize that He is actually everything you need.
Pastor Josh