2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7To 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. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But 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. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I looked up these verses last night while I was doing my Bible study. I really had to think about the things surrounding Paul as he wrote this. Paul was writing to the church in Corinth and and the "saints" which are the believers in Jesus Christ. Paul has endured hardships, beatings, imprisonments, riots, sleepless nights, hunger, (2 Corinthains 6:4&5) many things just becasue he was preaching the Word of God and had faith in Jesus Christ. First of all, do you think that you could do that? Would you contintue to persevere even when you were persecuted like that? That is something we all need to think about. Anyways, back to my the original verses, Paul said, that to keep him from becoming conceited he had a thorn in his flesh. Well when you look up the commentary on this verse their are a lot of different instances that could go along with this. But basically put, Paul was being tormented by something, it was hindering him. He pleaded with God to take it away but God gave him the grace to be able to endure it. That is something you can really learn from. Sometimes God sends extremely hard instances into our lives, for a reason. So I want you to sit here as your reading this, and think of something that would be very very hard to go through. Something I think of is if someone in my immediate family were to die. That would be horrible for my whole family. It would be soo difficult to go through. But God says his grace is sufficient for us. And that his power is made perfect in our weakness. Then he says: therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses! What?! I mean he wants us to be happy about someone dieing?? No, that's no what he is saying. He is saying that even if that were to happen, we can show our faith in God by not falling apart. Not being mad at God for letting that happen. But maybe it's not something that big, it's just someone gossiping about you. Spreading rumors. Ooo yeah that's not fun. It's happened to me before, and the very first thing I wanted to do was to tell everyone the they are lying about me! That the person that was saying that is a liar. But is that what God wants me to do? No! He wants me to not talk to anyone about how mean that person is or whatever. But I can go to my parents or even the person that is saying that about me, and ask them to stop. He doesn't want me turning around and gossiping about the other girl! Then I'm just as bad as her! Romans 12:17-19 says: 17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord. So we have to leave room for God to take care of it not us. Which, I'm sure you all know, is really hard. So always remember the God's grace is sufficient for you. And you can handle anything with God on your side.
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In Christ,
Jessica :-)
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