Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

September 09, 2019

by Pastor Hawtree

BIBLE READING: II CORINTHIANS 12

9 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.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

We all know this passage. In fact,we know it well. We have heard it all before.

We believe that God’s grace is sufficient. Not just that, we believe His grace is sufficient for anything that we go through or face because Paul never gave a particular example, he just said across the board that God’s grace was sufficient.

We believe God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. I’ve never experienced God’s strength more than the times when I was the weakest. The longer you love, the more strength you realize God has, and the more weak you realize that you are.

But then Paul says that he would gladly glory in his infirmities. Then Paul says he actually took pleasure in his infirmities. I don’t know about all that. I can understand the rest of what he has said, but I find this one difficult to relate to. When a Paul says he got to the point spiritually that he took “pleasure” in his infirmities, what did he mean? The word “pleasure” here is a Greek word that means:
* to think well of, i.e. approve (an act); specially, to think good, (be well) please(-d), be the good (have, take) pleasure, be willing.

You see Paul was not saying that he just enjoyed his infirmities, Paul was saying that he would end up looking back when everything was said and done and would find good things in it. Paul would end up thinking well of those experiences. Paul would find good things that God did through those experiences. What was not enjoyable, would end up being profitable for him later on. You may not of enjoyed it at the time, but he trusted God enough to know that after it was over he would see how God had used it. I will put it this way. There might be some things that I face tomorrow that I will not enjoy, but I trust God enough to know that whatever happens to me tomorrow will end up being used by God to help me. That my friend is living by faith. Just because we do not enjoy some things that happen to us does not mean that those things are not helping us in our walk with the Lord. God’s grace is sufficient. God‘s strength is perfect. God’s will can be trusted.