Right Call!

Right Call!

So I am well pleased with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, and with difficulties, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak [in human strength], then I am strong [truly able, truly powerful, truly drawing from God’s strength]. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:10 AMP

Looking at the life of Paul, it would seem that there are two clear phases; one where he was running on his own fumes, his great intellect and education, his proud Jewish heritage and upbringing and his deep knowledge of the law. He was a persecutor of the early church, and he did this under the zealous impression that he was upholding the law and stamping out anything contrary. That was the phase just before he had his encounter with Jesus on the way to Damascus.

His second phase is the one that accounts for today's extract. Imagine a man who had in the past been zealous for God's law, but without a full understanding of what God's law really demanded, now being used by God to encourage the same people he used to persecute. Paul's story teaches that there is nobody so far gone that s/he is beyond God's grace. The words of today's extract are from a position of grace; where the focus shifts from what I want to how my life can be a message to other people. Today's extract is a testament to the grace, power and ability that are available in and through Christ.

It must be noted that the reason why all the experiences make sense is because they go through Christ to come to me. Outside of Him, I wouldn't survive or last long. Only in Him am I able to see my experiences as opportunities for God to be glorified. Only in Him am I able to endure hard times and it is because I am certain that His strength and power will not let me go. At no time can I rest on my laurels or degrees; at no time am I really independent or self-sufficient; at no time can I claim I have all I need in or by myself.

I am strong because He is strong in me. I delight in trials because I have an assurance of his never-failing presence. I look to difficulties with an eye of faith, certain that by God's grace, nothing can stand up to God in me. I know I am victorious, simply because my life finds both support and expression in God. That is my testimony; what's yours? His time of favour is here.