4th November 2017 by Pastor Sunil
– The Bible says in Hebrews that see to it that no one misses the Grace of God, because if we miss the Grace of God then we miss the very base of our Faith and all is in vain.
– We are going to meditate from 2nd Corinthians chapter 11, where Paul is asking us not to celebrate our accomplishments, our achievements or our own ability, but to rejoice in our weakness. Because when we are weak that gives God the space to show up, to demonstrate his power, his strength and his work in our lives.
– Corinth was a very famous city. It was a major business hub. A place for cultural exchange. A place of commercial activity. We can compare Corinth to our modern-day Delhi or Mumbai or even Bangalore where trade is flourishing. People from across the world came for trading there. Wealthy or the rich elite class people lived there. It was a place for pleasure, exotic living and lovely buildings.
– During those times some false teachers had come into the Corinth church who were showing people their religious resume and telling people about their achievement, hence drawing people away from Christ and bringing them to themselves. Paul who was overseeing the Corinth church, also had an interesting religious resume, he had a vast experience, but he never desired to win people with his accomplishments or human wisdom.
– Here in this chapter Paul is exhorting the church to delight in weaknesses so that they can experience God’s power. He wanted to challenge them not to run away, or hide or disguise their weaknesses but instead to celebrate their weaknesses so that they could experience God’s grace abundantly. Just like the Corinth church, we too live in a society, a culture where we give a lot of emphasis on our strengths, abilities, accomplishments, self-reliance, etc. That’s the reason we always celebrated the good things in life but here Paul is telling us to delight in our weaknesses not our strengths. It is in our weakness that there is room for God’s grace, for God to work in our lives.
– God’s power can be demonstrated only in our weakness. If he just says that he is weak like them and they should celebrate their weakness no one was going to listen to that, so he starts off by telling them about his strength first. Paul mentioned that he has lot of things to boast about. His experience compared to the false teachers of that time was much more greater. His resume is great, but he says that it does not make him any greater.
– About 14 years ago Paul was caught up in the third heaven, but He kept this experience in his heart for so many years. If we were in Paul’s place, we would have been all over the social media, but Paul just kept quiet. And even after 14 long years he only mentions the event in brief.In all his description about the heavenly experience, he is still putting the whole focus on God and not on himself.
– Even the way Paul introduces himself is really commending. He called himself a slave of Christ. Yes, a slave who do not have an impressive resume or I should say they don’t have a resume at all. They exist just to labour day and night. They are never mentioned by name, they don’t have their own identity or any kind of an achievement. Slaves are only known for one thing, and that is their Master and here Paul calls himself a slave of Christ and that’s all that he wants people to know about him though he acknowledges that he has a pretty good resume, that he is well educated and has all the right credentials. It would have been very easy for him to be proud and put his confidence in his strength, but he goes on to talk about a thorn in a flesh, that is a weakness in his life so that he can be totally dependent on God.
– The Bible says that Paul begged God 3 times, but I am very sure he spoke to God about it many more times, probably everyday about getting that thorn or weakness removed. I do not know what this thorn is for you. But if you have identified this thorn, this weakness, this thing that you begged God to change, that you’ve begged God to heal, that you’ve begged God to take it away and it hasn’t gone, then know that this is not from God but from the Satan. Also know that God can easily remove this thorn from our lives, but sometime God allows that thorn to be part of our life for a greater purpose.
– God answers Paul in verse 9 saying “My Grace is sufficient for you and my strength is make perfect in our weakness” He no longer asks God to take it away, because that thorn, that weakness is the place where he experiences God’s grace most powerfully.
– If God removes that thorn from our lives, we will never experience God’s power. We always celebrate the goodness in our lives but it’s very hard for us to celebrate our weakness. Many times, we try to do or experience life on our own strength, but we can encounter God only in our weakness. Whatever difficulty we are facing in our lives right now, be assured of this one fact that “God’s Grace is greater than every difficulty”. So, if we really want to see God’s strength in our lives we should not hide it, we should not run from it but we should embrace it, because that is where we are going to enjoy God’s grace.
– If we look at Acts 4 :13 it says, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” People were astonished at their weaknesses God could work only in the weakness of the disciples. They were ordinary and unschooled men. They did not have the right resume, the right credentials, the abilities, yet we see these men have changed the whole world. God purposely choose people with weaknesses because He knows his strength works perfect in the weakness and not in the abilities of man.
– Let me end this with a true story of a Russian woman. There was an old woman lying on a small sofa, propped up by pillows. Her body was bent and twisted almost beyond recognition by the dread disease of multiple sclerosis and only the index finger of her right hand could be moved. Her aged husband spent all his time caring for her since she was unable to move off the sofa. Beside her couch was a vintage typewriter. Each morning her faithful husband would rise, praising the Lord. After caring for his wife’s needs and feeding her a simple breakfast, he would prop her into a sitting position on the couch, placing pillows all around her so she would not topple over. Then he would move that ancient black typewriter in front of her on a small table. From an old cupboard he would remove a stack of cheap yellow paper. Then, with that one blessed finger, she would begin to type. All day and far into the night she would type. She has translated lot of Christian books into Russian, Latvian and other languages of her people. Always using that one finger, she typed out the pages. Portions of the Bible, the books of Billy Graham, Watchman Nee and Corrie Ten Boom. All translated from that old typewriter. Anybody who saw her wasted form on the sofa, her head pulled down and her feet curled back under her body, they had just one cry in their heart” Oh Lord, why don’t you heal her?” But her husband would always say “God has a purpose in her sickness. Every other Christian in the city is being watched by the secret police. But because she has been sick so long, no one ever looks in on her. They leave us alone and she is the only person in all the city who can type quietly, undetected by the police”.
– Many times, we miss out on the Grace of God because we are very proud to show our weakness or ask for help. The only hope Paul had was to stop relying on himself and to rely completely on God. It is then that God can do a miracle in our lives.
– Are you struggling with any weakness or difficulty in life? Does life seem too tough for you? Remember that God’s grace is greater than all our weaknesses and our difficulties. Remember that God can turn all our weaknesses into His miracles.
