9 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.
Often times when we look at ourselves honestly in the spiritual mirror of the Word, we see an ugliness that is hard to stomach. Right where we thought there might be some beauty, there is the worst kind of ugliness. We think we have it together and bam, reality hits us between the eyes. God speaks through His Word a dose of reality and we are down on our knees in brokenness. As Paul begged God to deliver him from the weakness that kept him down on his knees, God’s answer was this: My grace is enough. No, I want deliverance, I want out of the struggle, I want it my way and I want it now! I, I, I, I, I! I think the focus of my universe is wrong. It sounds as though I am at the center. Oops. His grace is enough. We can survive the crisis. We don’t need immediate deliverance. This past week I had another kidney stone. At the ER they asked my pain level. It was a ten. I was given some wonderful drugs that brought it down to a seven and then eliminated it altogether. I was happy with it being down to a seven. I could live with that. I couldn’t stay at a ten, but seven was sweet relief. I could do nothing about the pain. Pain had the upper hand in my life at that time. In the middle of that struggle, I recognized my frailty. Something only a quarter of in inch around had put my life on hold and there was nothing I could do about it. I was at someone else’s mercy. And boy was I thankful God had given some scientists the brains to figure out how to block my pain. What a marvel. I saw the hand of God in that moment. I saw His power perfected in my weakness. He was right there, very close. I was definitely weak and in need of His very real presence in that moment. He did not disappoint. I had an assurance of being right with Him, I had no outstanding warrants from His bench, and I was not being served papers. I experienced peace.
The Arnold Journey 