2 Corinthians 11:30 If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.

 

Everyone experiences hardships in life. While these are not pleasant times, they are necessary because God uses our problems to bring us to a place of deeper faith in Him. As we discussed yesterday, when God wants us to hear something from Him, sometimes He has to put us in a place where we will listen.

 

No one in the Early Church experienced more hardship and persecution than the Apostle Paul. He never spoke much about it except in his second letter to the Corinthians where he spelled it out in detail.

 

Paul must have been coming under very strong criticism to respond in this manner. I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little. What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise! For you put up with it if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you on the face. To our shame I say that we were too weak for that! But in whatever anyone is bold—I speak foolishly—I am bold also.

 

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils of the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

 

If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the King, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me; but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands. (2 Corinthians 11:16-33)

 

Paul remained faithful through all this! God saw him through it all. Did he suffer? Yes. Was it easy? No. God never said our lives would be easy and we would never suffer. God’s answer to Paul is His answer to us today. No matter what we are going through God still says My Grace is sufficient for you, for My Strength is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

 

 

His Grace is sufficient to………..turn the tide……..in your life.

 

Through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus.           Doreen

 

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