Strength of the Lord

August 26, 2017

Devotions:

        “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” ‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭12:7-9‬ ‭KJV‬‬

        When Jesus said that His grace was sufficient, He was not saying that Paul just had to put up with the thorn in the flesh but as Paul looked to the greater one on the inside, the greater one would give him the victory.  God wants us to learn how to draw on the inner strength of the greater one within us.  We were born of His spirit when we were born again. His strength is now our strength but it does us no good if we just try to get by on our natural strength.  Paul learned a valuable lesson, that is to rely on the inner strength of God within him.  He then looked to his weaknesses, infirmities, as places to see the power of Jesus manifested in His body so that he would do the impossible.  Paul lived in the power of Christ to fulfill his calling and this is the only way that we have to fulfill our calling.  God did not call us to be super Christians but  in our fragility to rely totally on Christ and His strength within us. Many times God will not move us our of difficult circumstances but will have us go through them for us to see that the victory is not in our own strength but in the Lord's strength.