Strong? Self Sufficient?

Good Morning,

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 (NIV)
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "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.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." These are, truly, powerful words that should also give us great peace and comfort. I say that because we've been taught, most of us, throughout our entire lives, that we are to be "strong and self sufficient" as we live our lives on this planet. Now, even though we show the world that face of strength and self sufficiency, deep down inside we know that we are (again, most of us) anything BUT the strong, self sufficient person shown to the world.

But, the good news is that God knows us...the real and true persons we are...and He knows our weaknesses and failures. I would say, after reading Paul's words, God even sort of takes delight in these weaknesses and failures. I say that because of what God told Paul about His grace being Paul's sufficiency and His power being shown in Paul's weaknesses. You see, the same is true for us. God makes His power known through, and because of, our weaknesses. So, Paul figured that it would be best if he simply talked about (he says gladly boasts) of his weaknesses so the power of Jesus could be shown in and by way of him...the weak and needy Paul.

So, what "weaknesses" do we have that we need the strength of Christ to show through? Where is it that we need Jesus to help us to be more secure because we are so NOT self sufficient? These are areas we need to humble ourselves before God and pray about. These are areas in our lives where we need to have true and trusted brothers and sisters in Christ to talk to about...because they will know exactly what we're going through. Mostly, we need to admit to ourselves that we are, indeed, weak and needy. That might be the hard part.

God shows His strength through and because of our weaknesses. It's as simple as that.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David