Boast in your weakness...

What an odd title, right? Who would even want to boast about being weak? Well, Paul did...

2 Corinthians 12: 9,10 says, "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. 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." 

(New Living Translation)

I love how the Amplified words it...

"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! So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength)."

I once heard a pastor say...

"In your area of weakness there is super-abounding grace." 

I can't remember who said it, so I'm just going to give credit to the Holy Spirit. This statement though, perfectly sums up the preceding two verses. This passage provides such a sweet picture of our Heavenly Father. In the word it says that He knows us better than we know ourselves. This proves that he knows our strengths and our weaknesses better than us. He knows what pushes us, what makes us tick, what we can and can not handle and so on. The sweet thing is... even though he knows the deep, dark crevices of our life, He doesn't just leave us there. He doesn't condemn us for the things we struggle with.

     After really meditating on this passage, I truly believe it is a beautiful thing to be in a place of weakness. A place of realizing that you can't physically do anything more through human strength. This is a beautiful thing, because we serve a God who delights in bestowing His strength on us in our weakness. He literally infuses His power, grace, favor and character into what seems to be the fragile, inadequate parts of our life. He loves us so much that He doesn't make us grovel before Him before He bestows blessings to us. His super-abounding love and grace is flooding ("to arrive in overwhelming quantities or amounts" according to Webster) into the areas that we feel we need to hide from everyone, including Him.

     So with that being said, be like Paul. Be excited in your weaknesses. Translation... Be expectant in your weakness that God is going to show up in amazing ways. Be humble enough to let Him, because He longs and desires for you to flourish, grow, thrive and prosper in the areas where you feel you lack the most.

Love is patient...

C. S. Lewis once said...

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, 

the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says...

"Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. 
He has planted eternity in the human heart, 
but even then so, people cannot see the whole scope 
of God's work from beginning to end."

     It says here that God has placed eternity in the heart of every person. Meaning, that every person has the longing desire for something more than this day in and day out life. Have you ever found yourself in that place? The place of knowing that there must be something more after this earthly existence is over. I'm here to tell you... that longing desire did not just come out of thin air. It came from a Father who longs to have a relationship with you. Who longs to love on you. Who longs to show you the gracious depths of his heart.

     A while ago the Lord gave me this picture...

The moment that Jesus died, 

God turned His face away from His son, 

and at that very moment when the veil was torn, 

His presence burst forth in a full out sprint across time and space 

to invade and start knocking on the door of every heart He created, 

both present and future. 

He was once again able to be close to those He loves most 

and was not going to waste a single second. 

So he's still knocking... 

Itching and longing to be close and invited into the hearts of those He so dearly loves.

     The moment that Adam and Eve sinned, a wall had to be put in place, a veil that separated man and God's presence. The two were unable to be in perfect harmony. Man was now sinful, and God and sin can't coexist. From that moment, God's plan of redemption jumped into place. A plan to be reunited with His one true love, man.

     The other day as I was driving home, I was dwelling on God's love. He brought to my remembrance 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. I started to recite it in my head, "Love is patient, love is kind, love isn't jealous..." and so on. Then it occurred to me, why was "patient" the first description listed about love? I asked the Lord this question, and with the most sincere, sweet, tender, loving voice one can imagine I heard...

"Do you know how long I waited for you?"

    Tears ran down my face. The fact that the lover of my soul was so patient in waiting for the moment when he could be reunited with me because of Jesus' sacrifice. The moment that man sinned his plan for redemption was set into motion. He never gave up. He didn't look at the world and see a helpless mess. He looked at us and saw the beauty within. The potential within. Rest in the fact that your heavenly Father loves you so much that he waited for you. No length of time was too long for Him to wait. The joy set before Him was you. What a loving and patient Father we have.

Patience: "the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble or suffering without getting angry or upset."