Strength In Weakness

Greetings in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, it is the 11th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Psalm 34:19

“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;…” 
2 Corinthians 11:24-25  

“… I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. (That’s the thorn in the flesh) And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”...“For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:8-10

Are you feeling a bit down today, my dear friend? Are you feeling forsaken? Are you feeling that you just can’t take it anymore? Well, I want to tell you, there is a man in the Bible who really understands how you are feeling, Paul the Apostle. He wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. I believe he is Jesus’ main champion. This man was so beaten up because of his stand for Christ. They said he walked bow-legged because of the beatings he had taken on his back and it had affected his spine. He was partially blind. I believe that that thorn in the flesh was his sight. Remember, when he was knocked off his horse in the road to Damascus, he was blind and Ananias prayed for him but I believe the Lord kept him partially blind because the Lord was using him. 

Friends, if you are going through a tough time at the moment and you are saying, “Where is God? Why has He forsaken me?” Maybe it is not that. Maybe He is preparing you for a great work ahead. Do you know that that man, Paul, when he was led into the meetings, you will probably find that an assistant took him by the hand and led him in, because with some of the letters he says, “Look I signed it with my own handwriting.” I believe his face must have looked like one of those old-fashioned prize fighters who used to box without gloves on, his face must have been so disfigured, broken nose, and cauliflower ears. When he was a young man and he was seeking to destroy the Christians, he was very loud-mouthed, and very self-opinionated but after he had been beaten and thrashed and stoned and left for dead, I believe he didn’t have to say too much. When he walked in he must have worn all his trophies on his body. The people would have stood in awe. Do you know, when they sent him to Rome, he was put in a house there for a couple of years. The people used to line up outside his house just to meet him, to speak to this champion, this man, this gladiator for Jesus Christ. Eventually, of course, they cut his head off with a sword, but he had a reason to get up in the morning, he had a reason to live. He wasn’t a man that was moaning all the time. He was rejoicing that God had seen fit to use him. Today, remember, it doesn’t matter what you are going through, God has a work for you to do.

Stand up straight, man and woman of God, and know that this is only going to last for a short time and then the Lord is coming back to take us to be with Him in glory forever.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.