"Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
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.
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 12:8-10
When I read the Bible I am honestly so grateful. Grateful I am able to read, and that the word of God is given to us so freely within this 66 book love letter. When I see the love that Paul has for the church in the new testament, I can't help but be glad and seek that kind of love for the church as well- in regards to leaders to look up to and for my own spiritual growth as well. His Christ-like mind is shown even in his letters to the Corinthians when he tells them that he prayed to the Lord about a specific type of weakness and for it to be taken away from him. Yet when Jesus said that His grace is sufficient and that His power is made perfect in Paul's weakness, it shows that Paul still in the flesh had to persevere and his reaction to the response of the plead is all the more beautiful since he, receiving the response (not the one he desired) yet is beautifully glorifying our God. It's not about living your "best life now" it's about living through the pain and struggles in Christ and ultimately glorifying God through it all. If a person, as a self-proclaimed follower of Christ, one does not see the eternal ramifications of disobedience and lack of reverence and fear in the Lord who created all I daresay one is not to call one's self a Christian at all for that matter.. I pray that my fruits of suffering be as Paul's. Where I may glorify Him in the pangs of fleshly weaknesses.
