II Cor 12: Strongest When We are Weakest

In II Corinthians 12, Paul makes the startling claim that we are strongest when we are weakest. What does he mean? Paul was a great man of God with a deep understanding of Christianity. In v.7, he writes that God allowed Satan to give him a physical ailment, described as a thorn in the flesh, to buffet him or cause pain.

God allowed this to happen to drive Paul to pray to God that the thorn be removed (v.8). God answered Paul’s prayer, but not in the way Paul expected. Instead of taking the thorn away, God left the thorn there and told Paul that the grace or favor of God that he already had would give Paul the strength he needed to endure the thorn (v.9).

There are two ways God will help us with a burden we bear: He will either decrease the weight by removing burden or He will increase the strength of the shoulder that bears the burden. In Paul’s case, God increased Paul’s strength by reminding him that, as a believer in Christ, Paul already had the grace necessary to bear the burden. How do we know he already had it? Note the word “is” – that’s the present tense of the verb “to be”. Believers already have the grace of God necessary to shoulder a great burden!

Further, God told Paul that His strength is made perfect in Paul’s weakness. God’s strength is complete, is greatest, when we are weakest because it is only when we recognize how weak we are that we trust in God’s strength the most. We are strongest, when we are weakest!

Notice the progression in v.8-10: (1) Paul prays to God that the burden would be removed. (2) God answers the prayer, not by removing the burden, but by reminding Paul of the grace and strength he already has access to. (3) Paul “gladly” glories in infirmities or times of weakness and burdens and even finds “pleasure” in them because he discovers that those times are when he is strongest!

Read II Corinthians 11:23-28 and see all that Paul endured while preaching the gospel and ministering to churches. Why did he not quit during those trying times? He looked to the grace of God for his strength and not himself. Christ is the lasting and sustaining strength every person needs to survive hard times in life. Illicit and licit drugs, psychological therapy, a new career or better education can never provide the strength that Christ offers the believer that rests in His power. His grace is always sufficient. We can take all the disappointments, worries, fear and misery we face and weigh them against two words - “My Grace” - and they all disappear.

Three times in Matthew 26:36-44 does God the Son pray to God the Father that the cup of the world’s sin be removed from Him. But God the Son desired to do the will of God the Father and he received that cup. Paul follows the example of God the Son: Three times, he prayed that the thorn be removed from him, but he desired to do the Father’s will and rested in the strength of the Lord. Do you follow Christ’s example?

In Psalm 16:1, David wrote, “Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.” David did not ask for the problem to be removed, rather, he asks that God would preserve him, or strengthen him during the trial so he could get through it. No wonder David can write that he walks through the valley of the shadow of death in Psalm 23. Like Paul, David did not trust in his own strength. They both rested in the power of Christ.

Are you weak yet? We cannot be strong until we recognize our weakness and find our strength in the grace of God.

John 4: Leave Your Pots at the Well

In John 4, While traveling through Samaria, Jesus stops in Sychar and, wearied, sits on a well to rest. A Samaritan woman comes to the well and Jesus asks her to get him some water from the well with her bucket and utensils. And thus began a conversation that would lead to her conversion. 

There were a couple of things that this woman believed, didn’t believe or was involved in that prevent many today from desiring Christ as their Savior. But this woman, after learning who Christ was and what he could do for her, left those things in her life that prevented her from receiving him. She left those things behind her when she left her pot at the well.

She left her pot of religion at the well.  In v.20-25, we learn that the woman thought highly of religion, but she was still lost.  Many today trust in religion and doing, but do not have Christ in their heart.  Paul wrote in Romans 10:1-2 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.  Israel was very religious and zealous in religion, but they did not worship in spirit or truth in their heart.

She left her pot of lust at the well.  Jesus was not afraid to point out to this woman in v.16-18 that she was living with a man that was not her husband.  Jesus cared for her and wanted her to see her need for Christ.  She would only see that need if she could see her sin made plain by God himself.  Jesus had to point out to her that her marriages and relationships were failures.  Her religion taught her nothing about how to have great communication in marriage. Her religion did not teach her how to have meaningful and godly relationships instead of pursuing her lust.  This hit home with the Samaritan as it was this part of their conversation that she remembered most when she got back to town: John 4:29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

She left her pot of unbelief at the well.  By the time she gets back to Sychar, it is clear that this woman believed on Jesus Christ as her Savior. She realized that her religion had done nothing for her and her lust only caused more problems.  The living water that is Jesus Christ changed her from the inside out!

Jesus knew the Samaritan woman would be at that well that day. That’s the amazing thing about an omniscient God. The Samaritan woman came to the well simply to get some water. She had come to that well on the outskirts of town countless times before to get water to drink, cook and perhaps wash things. She expected nothing more on this trip to the well. However, on this trip, she would leave her pots at the well.

What pots do you need to leave at the well?  The pot of religion will never be enough to forgive us of our sins, only Christ can do that.  And only Christ can give us meaningful relationships by applying his Word to our lives.  For example, a great marriage is not based on religion, but an understanding of God's Word and application of it to our daily lives, particularly Ephesians 4 and 5.  Do you pursue lust and addiction?  Forsake them and seek Christ!  Leave those pots at the well!

John 3: God So Loved the World

Some may wonder if anyone loves and cares for them.  They think their life has no meaning because no one loves them.  But God loves you!  Consider the love of God:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

God loved the world, so he gave us Jesus Christ to die on a cross for us and give eternal life to those that would receive Him. But what does it mean, “God loved the world” ? When God said he loved the world, it means he loves everyone in the world. It is a vast love, but a personal love at the same time. He loves all because He loves each! God loves each and gave Jesus Christ for each person.

And when Jesus looked at the world, he did not observe a sea of humanity, but rather, he saw:
1. A Samaritan woman at a well who needed living water...
2. A young Jewish man named Joseph agonizing over an espoused, but pregnant bride....
3. A woman who spent her entire life savings to cure a disease she had for 12 years....
4. A blind man begging on the Jericho highway...
5. A ruler of the synagogue named Jarius who had a daughter that was sick...
6. A young man that was blind since his birth...
7. A bold Peter that would deny him three times....
8. A thief on a cross that cried out to him...
9. A traitor who would sell out for 30 pieces of silver...
10. Me, a teenager in Goshen Connecticut that was religious, but lost...
11. And he saw you.

To help us understand the personal nature of his love for us, substitute personal pronouns in John 3:14-18:

Joh 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Joh 3:15 That IF I believeth in him I should not perish, but have eternal life.
Joh 3:16 For God so loved ME, that he gave his only begotten Son, that IF I believeth in him I should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son TO ME to condemn ME; but that I through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18 IF I believeth on him I AM NOT condemned: but IF I believeth not I AM condemned already, because I hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Re-read John 3:16. Paul personalized John 3:16 when he wrote Galatians 2:20...the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

That’s who God sees when he looks at the world: People that he loves and sent his Son to die for them.