Thursday, September 11

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

Isaiah 8:1–9:21

2 Corinthians 12:1–10

Psalm 55:1–23

Proverbs 23:4,5

 

 

“Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times, I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7b–10)

 

 

In today’s reading, Paul describes a “thorn in my flesh” that, despite its inherent difficulties, ultimately leads to greater glory for God and to His manifest power in Paul.  Simply put, Paul “delight[s] in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

 

When we take an honest inventory of our lives, we recognize that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)  Chief among these gifts is God’s grace, His unmerited favor towards us.

 

We all experience “common grace”:  the power that holds the universe in order and allows for the normal, day-to-day functioning of the world.  As Jesus explains in Matthew 5:45, in His “common grace,” God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”  Through this “common grace” – most elegantly displayed in the glory of Creation – God resonates with the human heart, beckoning us to approach Him:

 

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day, they pour forth speech;

night after night; they reveal knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words;

no sound is heard from them.

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1–4)

 

 

To those whom He chooses to call, He provides saving (or “salvific”) grace.  This saving grace is effective and breaks down the veils of unbelief and separation from God.  For this reason, as we consider sharing the truth of God’s Word with family and friends, we must seek God’s intervention and foregoing movement in their lives.  When God chooses to reveal Himself, people respond with gratitude, love, and faith.  We may look back at the times in which God revealed Himself first – and continues to do so – with gratitude, thanking Him for breathing life into our dead hearts, minds, and bodies and “call[ing] into being things that were not.” (Romans 4:17)  As 2 Corinthians 5:17 teaches, “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation:  the old has gone; the new has come!”  God brings about this renewing, giving life to the dead and calling

 

God’s sustaining grace, especially through speaking through His Word and the indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit, allows us to follow after Him, committed both to trust and to obey.  Both trust and obedience emerge from a heart of faith, and faith originates through God’s self-revelation and an application of His grace.  We offer ourselves to become renewed and transformed, but God acts in and through us by means of His Holy Spirit.  Our spiritual growth comes by making ourselves available and then leaning on the abundant grace of our loving Heavenly Father to chisel a beautiful sculpture out of our rough rock.  Grace intervenes even to the point of giving us the desire to become available to God.

 

Let’s praise God for His grace and for overcoming our weaknesses with His awesome power and strength today.

 

 

Lord God, we bow our knee to You, recognizing that we are dead without Your grace.  We thank You for your effective grace, which brings beauty and order into this world, reveals the truth of the Gospel into our hearts, and strengthens us to serve and honor You in our daily lives.  We recognize that every good and perfect gift comes from Your hand, and we embrace You today as our Daddy.  Shepherd our hearts and our nation to hunger for You and Your righteousness.  Let us not stray into fields of unbelief, but provide Your grace to remain faithful and committed to growing under Your care.  We desperately need Your grace and are lost and dead without it.  Thank You for standing with us through every moment.  In Jesus’s Name, amen.

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