bottom line

2 Corinthians 12

7b So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh,

        a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.


8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.

9 Each time he said,


     "My grace is all you need.


     My power works best in weakness."


So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses,

     so that the power of Christ can work through me.

10 That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses,

       and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ.


For when I am weak, then I am strong.



This goes against everything our culture & world says to us.

We are told over & over to be strong.

We even get that within the Christian community.

Weakness is looked upon as a bad thing.


But here Paul is basically saying that God spoke to him & told him (Paul) 2 things:

1) No matter the circumstance, the grace of God is all we need to walk through it.

     "My grace is all you need"

2) When we are weak,

     when we are clueless as to what to be or do,

     when we don't see the "how" of anything,

     when we are just at the end of our rope - at the end of ourselves - & realize that we in ourselves are simply not able to be anything or pull off anything,

     it is in that state of inability & weakness that God is able to work the strongest & the best,

     because whether we like it or not, our only choice is to step back & let God work,

    knowing that everyone will see & know it was God who made things happen, not us.

   "My (God's) power works best in (yours & my) weakness."


And Paul found some ease in processing the fact that in his obvious weaknesses, God was given glory because His power was released in situations.

When he (Paul) was weakest, that was when the Holy Spirit's power was unleashed the most.

"When I am weak,then I am strong."


Of course, the kicker here is that Paul (& you & me) need to be totally surrendered to the whatever with God.

iow, we've given up control.


well, all righty then...

there we have it - the linchpin of the whole thing.

For His strength to work best in our weakness, we have to give up control, or at least the impression of control.

Which means, iow, we've got to trust God completely.


Now THAT'S the real bottom-line linchpin - we gotta trust Him.


So have we finally chased this rabbit down?

Have we come to the essence of what Paul is saying here?

That when we are at the end of ourselves, we find we must trust God with ourselves & our situation(s), thereby releasing Him to be & act in the full.


Whew! Chew on that one today. I know I will. After 4 1/2 years of being clueless, I'm still trying to quantify things & how my life relates to them.

( I hope this all made sense! )