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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
...who through faith... weakness was turned to strength.
Hebrews 11:33-34
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
We’re down to our final two messages in what has been a long but informative series on all the things that Christian believers can gain through the matter of faith. Our text for this journey has been the eleventh chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, a chapter I have referred to as the “faith chapter”.
Let’s go to the scriptures for the foundation for today’s message:
...who through faith... weakness was turned to strength. Hebrews 11:33-34
We know the author of this letter was writing to the first century Hebrew Christians and therefore used a lot of Old Testament examples to discuss the supremacy of Jesus and the ways believers were supposed to live in Him by faith.
In today’s excerpt from verses 33 and 34, we learn that we can find our weaknesses turn to strength when we exercise faith in life. As we expand to the Bible as a whole, we find other reinforcing verses such as these:
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 12:7-10
Now, as we read these words written to the Corinthian church, we don’t know what thorn the Apostle Paul was writing about but it obviously was a persistent, nagging burden to him.
Maybe it was a physical or mental ailment.
Maybe it was a broken relationship that he wished would mend.
Maybe it was a sin he had trouble shaking off. He testifies of frustration regarding this when he writes to the Roman believers (Romans 7:7-25).
Regardless of what the nature of the thorn was, what’s most important here is that Paul embraced it as being something the Lord wanted Him to bear after asking three times for it to be removed. He had faith that the Lord wanted him to carry the consistent burden of the thorn for a reason. Despite the discomfort it brought, he sought his comfort in the One who could bring an offsetting comfort.
In other words, the Lord’s power would be made perfect in the midst of Paul’s weakness, just as it will for us today when we maintain and sustain our faith in the Lord, no matter our life circumstances. Paul came to learn that when he was weak, he was actually strong, not by his own strength but by the blessed strength of the Lord that allowed him to deal with his thorn.
This is why Paul actually chose to “boast...about (his) weaknesses” as well as any other negative experiences he could encounter like insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. No matter what would come, the Lord had promised that His grace would be sufficient and Paul bought into that promise in a beautiful, trusting way.
So in this penultimate message in this series, the word of God is speaking powerfully to us in regard to our weaknesses, weaknesses that we all struggle with in one form or another. When those weaknesses rise up to plague us, let us turn to our Lord with faith and allow His strength to reveal itself as perfect to help us overcome like Paul and the Old Testament believers of old.
For through faith, weakness is turned into strength through the Lord through which all things are possible. Embrace this truth today and every day.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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