“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NKJV)
“No one understands what I am going through.” “Nobody gets it!” “My situation is unique.” It might be the case that those who are around us might not understand what it is that we are facing or going through, but nothing is new to our God!
Our God has seen it all … heard it all … dealt with it all … according to His perfect and unchanging will! Because He made us, He understands our nature, problems, trials, tribulations and suffering!
That should be enough for any of us to know these truths … but that isn’t always the case. The passage to consider is one that should be so encouraging to every one of us … but sometimes it doesn’t seem to work that way!
There are times when the wrong voice speaks up louder in my ear than the reassuring voice of the Lord! The fact is … the wrong voice becomes the listened to voice far too often!
Whatever was Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” … it was troubling to him enough to ask the Lord to remove it three times! Yet, God didn’t remove it, but rather gave him the reassurance that He would be right there for Paul in whatever circumstance he might find himself in. Now we can speculate all we want to, but none of us knows for sure what Paul was asking the Lord to remove.
God didn’t grant his request, but rather gave him a promise that he could carry with him throughout the rest of his life! I know what I believe about the truthfulness of this passage … and still I find myself going back time after time asking the Lord to remove whatever it is that is disturbing my life!
God’s word is living, active and powerful (Hebrews 4:12), and the promises, warnings, encouragement and comfort it offers can be and too often is crowded out by the noise of this world! Would you agree?
And the fact of the business is this crowding out by the noise of this world is exactly what the prince of this world, Satan, wants! We need to stop listening to him who wants nothing else except the destruction of our soul!
Satan has been winning a great number of battles over the years and even now. But we know who will win the war for as Paul writes to the Corinthian brethren, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, or angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)
What we need more than a change in circumstances is the faith to believe and to trust that He always knows what is best … that He is always aware of our needs … and that He is always there for us! Yes, God’s grace is sufficient for the very circumstance we may find ourselves in!
“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.” C.S. Lewis
Bill Fairchild, Jr.
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