Wednesday, July 11, 2012

All-Sufficient Grace





“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.’”

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 (NIV)



            The Apostle Paul had a bothersome health problem. We are not told what it was but we do know it was something that perplexed him. He even called it “a thorn in my side.”  

            We have this scriptural account of him pleading with Jesus to remove it. Christ’s response tells us that He had a purpose in allowing Paul to have this condition. 

            As I was choosing scriptures for this month’s topic, I found this passage speaking to me. I have fibromyalgia. The muscle aches sometimes appear in cycles. This particular day, the weather was very cool-over night the temperature might have fallen into the 40’s. This is not usual weather for June. I found myself in the dull overall pain that I have come to recognize. I wanted to sleep rather than start my day on time.

            Once I pulled myself out of bed, had my devotions and checked on laundry, I sat down to complete some writing craft tasks. I had begun searching scripture for appropriate passages for July- the topic being grace.           

            I came upon the reference in my concordance. GRACE, Described as, All-sufficient . . . 2Cor 12:9

            I turned in my Bible and read the verse and the one before it. It spoke to me. I had new understanding of the Lord’s words.

            In the past when I had a ‘fibro day’ I would not be active. The end of the day came and I wouldn’t have done anything productive in taking care of our home or in the writing craft. My outside activities became limited to what I had to do. A related condition to the fibro causes me to continue to monitor my outside appointments and social engagements. But, after reading these two verses, I have discovered I need to rely on God’s grace for these disorders.

            Paul chose to share this part of his life with his readers. He also conveyed the Lord’s message to him.
         

            “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”


6 comments:

  1. His grace is sufficient Cecelia.
    I love your new fresh blog look, the only thing is that the blue text in the sidebar is hard to read... Maybe you can change it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Marja. I will try to rememdy this circumstance.

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  2. "All sufficient." There aren't any limits on that, are there? That's good news!

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  3. Quiet spirit, I can associate with this blog post very much especially at the moment. I suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome which has also been called fibromyalgia. At the moment in fact today I am in that place of not getting out or even being able to do house work etc due to my condition. I can totally understand the pain which I can feel even in my very fingertips as I type. Thank you.
    Behind The Smile.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear friend, Thank you for stopping in. I appreciate your response to my blog post. I usually post here Mondays,Wednesdays, and Fridays please feel free to visit any time you can.

      Delete

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