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2 Corinthians 12:7-10
or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given 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. That 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.
New International Version (NIV)
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Our youngest is home from college, taking her courses online. Tonight she silently protested the proliferation of chicken for supper by going to Whataburger. She is still differentiating herself from her parents! On the positive side we watch movies and play monopoly. Last night she watched M. Night Shyamalan's movie Signs with us for the first time. When we watched it years ago she was not yet with our family.
Mel Gibson plays a pastor named Graham who loses his faith when he loses his wife in a tragic accident. To complicate matters greatly, aliens invade his corn fields and the world. At a strategic moment in the movie the young son of the lapsed pastor has an asthma attack at an opportune time. As a former asthmatic, I would say it is hard to imagine a good time for an asthma attack. In this case though, his inability to breathe keeps the aliens' poisonous gas from entering his lungs. He is literally saved by his own weakness. An epi-pen shot later, he awakes, unaware that his asthma saved his life.
It is hard to see silver linings in our current clouds. Even worse than chicken suppers for our daughter, the whole virus crisis can be more than we can bear or comprehend. The Apostle Paul's story helps us here. In the course of his boasting, he acknowledges that a "thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan" tormented him. Like you, I have always wanted to know what Paul's thorn was, to no avail. We do know that he prayed and asked God to remove it. Three times Paul prayed. God answered his prayer, not by removing the thorn but by reminding Paul of the sufficiency of God's grace. God's power was perfected in Paul's weaknesses. So Paul boasted in his weakness so that God's power might rest on his life. His very dependence on God saved his life and gave him strength.
What is your weakness? Is it a physical infirmity, a psychological struggle, a spiritual temptation? How is God using our weaknesses to bring us to a point of dependence? This is hard for independent folks like us to acknowledge. When Winston Churchill faced a particular challenge, his wife tried to comfort him by saying, "Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise.' Churchill responded, "It may be, but at the present it is quite cleverly disguised." Nobody wants a thorn. But Jack MacGorman the professor at Southwestern Seminary had it right: the thorn room is not your destination, but a station on the way to the throne room. Our greatest weaknesses may very well be the places God shows us the sufficiency of his grace and the perfection of his power.
As we continue to pray for our government leaders with gratitude, we hope for a sustained decline in new Covid cases over a fourteen day period in our city and state. Remember, the White House suggested this as the guideline for moving to Phase 1 of reopening. Would you pray with me for this to happen? As I write today, I read that we have one consecutive day of decline in Houston. Texas broke a three day decline with an upsurge in cases yesterday. Christian leaders in our own Texas medical center have asked churches to wait until June to reopen. They base this on scientific data and the current cases in our city and state. Their reasoning seems sound to me. So we will pray and plan and prepare to reopen and trust that God will lead us. The consequences of this decision, like others we have made in this season weigh heavily on me . . . “I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches . . .” especially Tallowood, for each and for all of our members and those who are joining us in these days.
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Pray with me:
Father, we know our own weaknesses all too well. Use them we pray in your sovereign plan to bring us to deep dependence on you. The present crisis shows us that we cannot solve all of our problems. We are not self-sufficient. So let us find our sufficiency in you, delighting in our difficulties. Reveal the greatness of your power in our weaknesses we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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Join us in memorizing the Word. Scripture for this week:
Matthew 5:36-37
And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
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| Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan. Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week. In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year. Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.
Joyfully,
Duane
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