marylaw
Life Plan Devotion #238 [All-sufficient Grace]
Jun 27, 2010
Somehow, I forgot to post this on my blog, so here it is. :)Post Date: 6/24/10 5:01 am
Hi, Everyone.
I didn't post yesterday, but I'm not sure anyone noticed. ;) Maybe your week has been as busy as mine, although yesterday I didn't post because I was busy. I didn't post because I spent the day resting from the previous very busy days, as well as meditating on today's verse and studying the Greek meanings of the main words in today's key verse. I love to do word studies. It's the best way to make sure that we're thinking on God's Word in the correct way.
Tomorrow, Lord willing, I will post the Flashback Friday Devotion, and on Monday, we'll have our final devotion on the topic of grace (unless the Lord directs otherwise). Please pray that I will listen carefully to where He'd like for us to go, next.
Let's pray for all those having surgery today, as well as all those recovering from surgery, that God's grace will manifest in a miracle in their body and life.
Blessings,
Mary
Life Plan Devotion #238 [All-Sufficient Grace]
II Corinthians 12:9 "And [the Lord] said to [Paul], 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me" (NKJV).
Grace, the freely given, unmerited favor and love of God, is seen in the gifts of salvation, godly instruction, and divine strength. Grace is what brought Jesus to us, and it is grace that helps us to follow Him. Grace is available, to help the believer to be transformed rather than conformed, and grace can make the difference between a life overpowered by weakness and a life empowered by Jesus Christ.
Being a believer does not come with a guarantee of a life free of care. However, we are not meant to be buried by care, weakness of any kind, or sickness. A believer can call on God's grace to sustain him/her while experiencing those difficult times, but God does not desire that we settle for that. I know this because the Word says that "in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:37). "All" meansall. If a "thing" is conquering you, rather than you conquering it, you are living a "less than" life.
If you realize you are living a "less than" kind of life, because you are experiencing a care, weakness, or sickness that has not gone away, and doesn't look like it ever will, I want you to know that God's "grace is sufficient for you." The Greek word for "sufficient" is pronounced "ar-keh'-o," and it is "the idea of raising a barrier, to ward off, and to avail." It can mean "to be content," but there is much more power in the former meanings than the latter, and it is that power that Paul brings up and that we should appropriate, by grace.
In II Corinthians 12:9, the Lord says to Paul, and to us, that His "strength is made perfect in weakness." The Greek word for "strength" is "dunamis," and it means "special miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself), ability, abundance, meaning, might (mightily, mighty, mighty deed), (worker of) miracle(s), power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful) work" (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance). That tells me that God desires to fill us with such power and strength that not only will we prevail over whatever is going on in our life and/or body, but we can be used of God to share miracles with others, because of that power.
That's what happened to Paul. Every time Paul's "thorn in the flesh," which he called "a messenger of Satan sent to buffet [him]" came around to torment him, he experienced Christ's power (II Corinthians 12:7-9). We know that Paul used that power to share miracles with others, for Acts 19:11-12 says that "God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. Handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them" (NIV).
Let's look at the Amplified Version of II Corinthians 12:9, where the Greek definitions are added, for greater understanding. "But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!"
Whatever care, weakness, or sickness you may be experiencing, God is behind it only if you're experiencing great God power, too. Anything less, and it's a "messenger of Satan," something you're not meant to put up with. Call on God's grace, and then take, receive, and appropriate that grace to receive your miracle, so that God can use you to share a miracle in the life of someone else.
What this has to do with weight loss: Too often, we who are on the weight-loss journey try to prevail under our own power. That's why we struggle, for if Jesus, the very Son of God said, "By myself I can do nothing" (John 5:30), what makes us think we can do this by ourselves, on our own power. Ask for, receive, and appropriate God's grace and power, to help you prevail on your weight-loss journey.
Prayer for Today:
"Heavenly Father, for too long I have settled for a 'less than' kind of life, but no more! I don't want anything less than what You have for me. I want Your miraculous power to work in me and through me, and I'm not going to settle for less. Humbly, I ask for Your grace to come to me. I know it is a free gift of love from You, so, in prayer, right now, I reach out and take that gift of grace. I receive it into my mind and heart, so that my mind and heart can be 'made perfect' and every care be healed. I receive it into my body, so that my body can be 'made perfect' and every weakness and sickness be healed. Thank You for performing a miracle in me. I will look for the evidence of that miracle, in Your timing. Thank You for the power of Your Word and Your grace, that does for me what I cannot do for myself. I 'boast' in that; I 'boast' in You. Use me to share a miracle in the life of someone else, I pray. In Jesus' Name. Amen."
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About Me
Winfield, KS
Location
44.7
BMI
Surgery
11/17/2008
Surgery Date
Jul 26, 2008
Member Since
