When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong

I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Diamonds are beautiful and valuable gemstones, but their beginning is common carbon – black, dirty, and combustible. God uses intense outside forces to rid us of impurities and to perfect His strength in us.

God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness, says the apostle Paul. We all wish it were not so, because we all hate being weak. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments can teach us more than we ever wanted to know about physical weakness. When we experience the fiery furnace of suffering – whether physical or emotional, whether persecution from without or humiliation from within – God’s loving purpose is to make us pure and strong.

Suffering is the fire that God uses to purify and strengthen us.

Our Daily Bread – July 16, 2013