True Strength

"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 12:8-10 (NIV)

        A few years ago a friend of mine lost his wife to cancer. She had fought the good fight for three years (battling cancer), but in the end God had called her home to suffer no more. Through this troubling experience, my friend learned how God's strength was perfected in weakness. I can only imagine the internal struggle, the questions, the moments of bewilderment he withstood. God's response to Him? "My grace is enough to make you strong, stand firm." (paraphrase mine) And stand firm he did.

        Now I know God will never give us more than we can handle, but if we are to obtain a strength significant enough to defeat the spiritual darkness in this world we will eventually have to endure a moment in which our weakness can only be complimented by His strength. Don't fear these moments because you don't know the wonderful purpopse these moments will bring you into. Paul was intimately acquainted with pain and persecutions of every sort, yet he never relented in boasting about his suffering and the strength of Christ within Him. We would do ourselves a great amount of good if we learned to do the same.