I have to underline a foundational fact : God’s goal is not to be sure you are ecstatic.

Irrespective of how tough it is for you to believe this, it is time to do so. Life isn’t about your being cushty and chuffed and successful and agony free. It’s about becoming the woman or man God has called you to be. Sadly , we shall infrequently hear that message announced today.

much more reason for me to assert it again : Life is not about you. How am I able to say that with assurance? Due to Paul’s reply : “Most smilingly , I will be able to rather boast about my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may dwell in me.

And he went with it for the remainder of his days. When you and I boast of our strengths, we get the credit, and we keep going under our own head of steam.

But when we boast in what he’s doing in the middle of our brokenness, incapability, and ineptitude, Christ comes to the front.

The things we fear and run from in our lives are exactly what brought contentment to Paul. Glance at the list : I’m content when I lose. I’m content with problems and pressures that are so tight I will barely turn around. Why? “Because when I’m feeble then I am strong.” understanding that brought the apostle, on fire with the flaming oracles of heaven, to his knees. What a technique to live your life—content in everything—knowing that divine strength comes when human weakness is obvious. That is what gave the person of grace true grit. 

This is a nice time to correct faulty thinking. It isn’t always God’s will that you be healed. It’s not always the daddy’s plan to alleviate the pressure. He hasn’t got an excellent ( meaning “comfortable” ) plan for everyone’s life—not from a human point of view.

As with Paul, his response isn’t what we prayed and was hoping for. recalling that he’s forming us more into the image of His Boy , it helps us to grasp his reply is based on His long-range plan, not our immediate relief. Fortunately, in the middle of that suffering, He gently murmurs, “My grace is acceptable for you” ( v. As with Paul, His grace supplies more than we want to endure whatever it is that is threatening to undo us. His grace is more satisfactory than your strength. His grace is more satisfactory than the recommendation of any trained advisor or best friend ( though God uses both ). His grace is acceptable to hold you thru whatever your own unique “thorn” might be.

Do you want to understand why? Because God’s power is perfected in weakness ( v. And all this time we assumed power was perfected in success.

We have been taught all our lives that it is accomplishment that makes us robust.

But the good news is this : when we are puny, He pours His strength into us, which gives a wholly new point of view on agony and suffering, trouble and pressure. It’s at that point our God comes thru, takes us by the hand, and by His grace lifts us up. 

God is looking to us to determine if the Cross of Christ is embellished on our hearts and lives. The early Christians adhered to the picture of the Cross as it helped them remember Jesus.

They didn’t see Him as still hanging on the cross, but viewed it as a symbol of God’s eternal love and forgiveness. So I may hold dear the old craggy cross, until my prizes at last I lay down ; I will be able to adhere to the old craggy cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.”.

The Cross wasn’t the end or the final word on the state of humankind. It definitely was an obligatory step that needed to be taken by Jesus before God’s deliverance might be completely realized by all who would come to like and worship Him. When we take up the Cross of Christ, we crucify all that we are except for Jesus. This is our glory, and the empty cross represents our crucified life.

Sailors on the high seas understand the significance of securing themselves to something strong in a fierce storm.

You learn how to adhere to what’s secure in a typhoon. Paul learned to adhere to what he knew to be accurate about himself and the Lord who held him in His grip.

While Devil punched and battered the apostle’s resolve, the Lord’s purpose was to humble him, to keep him from exalting himself.

Pride doesn’t reside in the hearts of the damaged, the split-apart, the hurt, or the pained of soul. Many years back I read these words : “Pain plants the flag of reality in the fortress of a rebel heart.” Mums and dads keeping vigil in the leukemia ward of a kids’s hospice don’t wrestle with issues of pride.

I am not qualified to offer you the intimate details of how Paul’s thorn influenced him. he does confess that he pleaded the Lord on 3 separate occasions to get rid of it from him ( v. And you know what? We might have done the same. You and I’d have prayed and prayed and pleaded for relief. I see fantastic transparency drafted in those lines. The world wants more proponents of Christ who embrace agony and trouble instead of reject them. How useful for us to see all this as God’s plan to keep us humble. Those lessons are learned in the ditchs of life. That’s precisely what occurred as Paul turned again and again to his Lord.