Stronger When Weak
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. —2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Better to suffer than be prideful.
10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. —2 Corinthians 12:7-10
When we are weak, God’s strength is allowed to work.
1 I must go on boasting though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.” —2 Corinthians 12:15 Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to the ‘super-apostles.” —2 Corinthians 11:522 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham/ So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,[b] in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. —2 Corinthians 11:16-30I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. —2 Corinthians 12:1-47 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. —2 Corinthians 12:7-9
We become strong when we accept suffering as a gift.
10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses [feebleness of health], insults [remark that causes outrage], hardships [an event causing great distress], persecutions [same word used in Acts 8:1 describing Saul dragging men and women off to prison] , and calamities [extreme affliction]. For when I am weak, then I am strong. —2 Corinthians 12:1030 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. —2 Corinthians 11:30
