I think of God and the one thing that is so amazing about him is that He never makes a mistake. The Bible tells us that God alone is perfect.
Friday I wrote that I’m 67 years old, and yet I’m only 65. I also wrote that Dr. Haggai had been around the world 15 times, and he told me last night that he had been around the world 106 times, (not including singular trips to various continents like Australia and Africa) – Don’t know where I got 15, I could’ve sworn I read that somewhere.
I don’t know how I made those mistakes. Most of the time I take pride in the fact that my mind is sharp and my memory is good. I have to admit that when I can’t even remember my own age; my old mind just might be getting weak.
My weaknesses are totally disgusting to me, especially when the weakness of sin wins the daily battle(s) in my life. I feel that I should be able to control myself better than I do, but alas I cannot. I get angry and frustrated with myself and today I cried out to God, (more of a rant really), at the fact that I’m weak and I don’t want to be.
As with any problem that I have, I go to my Bible and today was no different. I read about the Apostle Paul who was dealing with some thorns in his flesh too, and he said: So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
Hmmm . . . Paul had been given wonderful, powerful, and mind numbing, revelations directly from God, but ran the risk of becoming conceited, and proud in a vain sense of self import. In fact he mentions not once, but twice, that he was given a “thorn in the flesh” to prevent him from becoming proud.
We are not privy to what “thorn” was in Paul’s flesh and whether or not it was some great trouble he was facing, a physical infirmity, or perhaps some great temptation, but the above verse indicates it was administered directly from a member of satan’s team.
I’ve had thorns in my flesh and they are painful. So why would God allow this torment to befall this man of God? Importantly the verse indicates to me that God allowed this evil to fall upon Paul in order to keep him from becoming proud and instead to continue to rely on God for His strength and not Himself . . .
Wow! Does God allow evil to befall us in order to accomplish good???
Paul asked God three times to remove the thorn, but God told him the following: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
That prompted Paul to give up asking for deliverance but say: Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Hmmm . . . Not only did God stop Paul from whining, He had him vowing to “gladly boast” about his weaknesses from that point forward so that he could draw on Christ’s power and not merely his own.
We are imperfect; we are living in an imperfect world; we are surrounded by satan and a demonic horde of incomprehensible numbers trying to tempt us, lower our self esteem, harm us, and greatly discourage us, and most importantly we are trying to please a perfect God.
All might appear to be lost if it were not for God’s statement to Paul that simply says: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. God does not expect nor want us to fight this battle alone. He knows our weaknesses and He has compassion for us.
We might all view our weaknesses in a different light after thinking about this one for a while.
The grace which is freely given to anyone who desires it is God’s love, mercy, favor, and goodwill, and it is bestowed upon us through our repentance to God. He has a capacity to forgive, tolerate, accommodate, and empower, provided we will humble ourselves before Him.
So if we want to boast, we should do it about our weaknesses, knowing that God just might just be allowing them in order to save us from our sinful natures.
1 Cor. 5:5
. . . hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.