#DailyDevotion Your Weakness Doesn’t Define God’s Attitude Towards You.
2 Cor. 12:7-10 7To keep me from feeling proud because such wonderful things were revealed to me, a thorn was put into my flesh, Satan’s messenger to plague me and keep me from feeling proud. 8Three times I begged the Lord to have it leave me alone, 9but He told me, “My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, My power is doing its best work.” So I will delight all the more to boast of my weaknesses in order to have Christ’s power rest on me. 10That’s why I’m glad to be weak and mistreated, to suffer hardships, to be persecuted and hard pressed for Christ. You see, when I’m weak, then I’m strong.
So, what are you going through? Are you wondering what did you do to deserve this? Are you wondering if God really loves you or not? Are you questioning why you can’t seem to shake some particular sin or bad habit that you really don’t like doing and you’ve asked God repeatedly to remove it from you? Maybe you are wondering if you are even a Christian for being so weak.
This may be the passage for you. The LORD Jesus Christ was doing mighty things through the apostle Paul. Paul may indeed be the man was caught up to the third heaven. The LORD though knows what is in a man and what is necessary to preserved him unto eternal life. Paul apparently was in danger of the sin of pride. To keep Paul from being proud, a thorn was put into Paul’s flesh, a messenger from Satan to plague Paul which would keep him from feeling proud.
Debates has gone on for the last 20 centuries over what this thorn in the flesh was. Did he receive a physical malady? Did he have a sin that continually plagued him? Was it an actual person or maybe even a demon that constantly reminded Saul of his sins. I believe the Holy Spirit made Paul be pretty vague here on purpose.
Paul asked , begged, and pleaded with the LORD three times to remove it from him. The LORD Jesus Christ said, “No. My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, My power is doing its best work.” God does his best work when we aren’t so hot. Just look at the history of Israel. Gideon defeated thousands with only three hundred men. He over came the enemies of Jerusalem by having them play music and dance once. Another time He had them just sit behind the city walls, totally unable to defeat the surrounding armies while his angels took care of them. Finally, their biggest enemy and our biggest enemy was defeated by Jesus simply allowing himself to be crucified, dead and buried. You simply don’t get any weaker than that. But through that weakness, Jesus defeated sin, death and the devil.
So too, when we have physical maladies, spiritual maladies, and opposition to our lives from the outside and we ask Jesus to remove them from us and nothing happens, it isn’t because of our lack of faith in Christ nor his lack of love towards us. We’re in that place where He does his best work in and through us. We have to rely completely and solely on the power and word of God. God disciplines those He loves. Most assuredly you are loved by God in the midst of trials, hardships, persecutions, temptations and the like. No one person can say what God has laid upon you which looks evil to the world but is preserving us from falling away from Christ. This is why Paul is vague I believe. In the midst of all these things when it looks like God opposes us, we need to cling to Jesus’ promises and work all the more. It is in them we have the power of God.
Heavenly Father, grant us faith in your wisdom and might when we experience evil to trust in your promises and the work of Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.