"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.]Before last week, I thought my week would be so easy (for memorizing at least) because 2 Corinthians 12:9 is one of my favourite verses. It turns out that it was even more difficult, because God was/and is challenging me to apply it.
The past two weeks have been very eventful. The raccoon living in the roof, literally on top of my room, bit through some wires and we lost power in half our house (which means half of my room, and downstairs only one living room and one tv). We also lost our Internet for a week because of that. My faulty phone which I refused to replace finally broke. Some family health problems came up which are still left hanging, and I was continuing to struggle with my own health. Discipline for *everything* became even more challenging than usual.
So how does this relate to 2 Corinthians 12:8-9??? During this time, while I was still meditating on the passage I knew in my head that these were all weaknesses, and I knew in my head that God's grace is sufficient, but it wouldn't sink into my heart. It was in my weaknesses of bitterness and pride that I couldn't submit my hardships to God. I could also see that God's grace was MORE than sufficient (it was good that the health problem came up now, good that God took my technology away, good that we can call people to solve the raccoon and electricity problem, and good that I'm surprisingly doing well in school despite this). I didn't want to accept God's grace, because I don't deserve it.
So all my sins and shame led to guilt. And I let that become Satan's foothold on me. To sum up my post I'll use scripture:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength [...] the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" Isaiah 30:15,18 (I actually found it by crossreferencing this week's verse).I do need to continually repent and constantly wait on God, but I do not need to feel ashamed, because the Lord longs to be gracious! Because I know I am weak, but I am strong in the Lord. ON TO THE NEXT VERSE!
Have a nice Fall weekend, and looking forward to see you guys for Thanksgiving :)
Hi Hi! so i guess a little sharing time keke
ReplyDeleteSo over the last week i've been really reminded of this verse. so two weeks ago on the 22, my laptop got stolen... and it was during a really stressful time at school, so that didn't help at all.
so for this past monday, tuesday and wednesday i had something due. monday was the least important one cause it wasn't for marks but my profs want to see stuff to make sure we've been working, tuesday i had a logo project worth 20%, and wednesday i had an essay worth 50% so all in all it was pretty stressful. Especially my essay cause i didn't back up my previous essay. (so lesson learnt: always back it up!)
to get to the point (lol)
over this past week i've just been memorizing this verse over. mainly the part that "My grace is sufficient for you" and "My power is made perfect in weakness" and a little of "I will be content in (hardship)" cause this was well my hardship boulder.
so yeah before this weekend started i was just thinking to myself that the next few days would be sooo difficult to get everything done, thinking that i'd have to stay up late. my only goal was just to get it all done to the best i can and not think about my marks lol! (yes im a student these are what i think about... school school and more school)
i just remember praying to God that i know i can't do all this in the amount of time that i had, and praying that His power will bring me through this. (my hardship kekeke)
So yeah now that the worst part of my week has past, def praise the LORD! not just cause everything got done (which i think is a feat of its own!) but i didn't have to pull any nighters (woohoo! cause I was totally expecting that) and above all that throughout the whole week I felt joyful and peaceful (?) like i didn't feel stressed and I was pretty happy doing everything - and that def from God!
so yeah i think throughout all this I was really able to see God's power made perfect in weakness, cause only when i was at a loss and fully reliant on God, that His power is so evident.
secondly, today def made me think of "My grace is sufficient for you." Throughout this circumstance, my class got together to help me out a bit, and it was soo amazing of them! and all i can say is Thankyou God! cause it's by his Grace that these ppl are in my life, and that they have such a wonderful <3 !
So i guess that's my little sharing i've been meaning to do...
JASMINE!!! i'm so sorry i was so late to see this! but PRAISE THE LORD!! that everything went well. DANG how'd you get your laptop stolen?! yo man that's like $$$$!! what happened?? but i'm glad you're able to see this verse come a live. don't forget it! JOURNAL IT!!
ReplyDeleteLol well story is that we went hiking in gatineau park (cause its autumn and its pretty and all) so we locked our stuff in the trunk. and when we came back (we had 5 cars) and 4 of them got broken into, and they popped the trunk and so a lot of our stuff is gone. But i think it's been really amazing cause well my church and school were doing some fundraising and the money i got came out to be exactly (even a little over) what i spent to get my new laptop lol! so pretty amazing!
ReplyDeleteWHAT THE!!! no wayyy!! been goi so jeen!!! that happened to us on a missions trip to mexico, but only one van got popped. in the end though i think it really showed how much materialistic things aren't as important as we make it seem like, and what's even more amazing is that He's able to provide more and beyond!
ReplyDelete