I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
How Weakness Becomes Strength
Think of a situation you wish you could change, and then imagine what the apostle Paul must have been going through in 2 Corinthians 12.
Paul was suffering, and so he repeatedly begged God to remove his pain. But God doesn’t change Paul’s situation. Instead, God tells Paul that His “grace is enough” for him.
"Charis," the ancient Greek word for “grace,” conveyed the favor God showed humanity when He sent Jesus to earth for us.
Before Jesus, people couldn’t draw near to God on their own. But Jesus made a way for anyone to experience intimacy with God. A relationship with God isn’t something we earn—it’s a free gift we receive when we accept that Jesus died for us and rose from the dead.
So when God tells Paul that His “grace is sufficient,” what He’s essentially saying is: “I am enough for you.”
God could meet Paul’s needs because God was all Paul needed—and God was with Paul. The influence Paul had was only because God chose to show off His power through him.
Like Paul, we can then boast about how weak we are so that way God gets the credit for every great thing that happens to us.
Our situations might not change, but our cry often changes from, “God please remove this suffering,” to, “God, when I suffer—show me how You are using this for Your glory and my good.”
So whatever you’re facing, know that God is near. He sees you, and He loves you. Take some time today and ask God to show you how He is empowering you. Draw near to Him, and let Him strengthen you.
Power, Love, and Discipline
One of the miracles of salvation is that when we have faith in Christ, God not only saves us—He also gives us the power to live according to His will. Your life in Christ is one that is empowered by the Holy Spirit living within you.
This is a great gift, but a big shift. It often takes time to change how we think and act. We may have bad habits that take hard work to correct, or patterns of thought that are challenging to break.
Thankfully, God promises to be with us and to empower us to make these changes in our life. When Paul is writing to his mentee Timothy, he encourages him to continue to develop the gift that God has given to him. While we are saved in an instant, it takes a lifetime to develop and work out what God is doing inside of us.
Paul reminds Timothy that God’s Spirit does not give us fear or cowardice. Those things are tools of the devil who is trying to keep us from God. But the Spirit of God empowers us with confidence in Him. He gives us the ...
