1 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIVUK)
…I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 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. 10 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.
I am all too aware that I am unreliable (you can see that from the Bible Notes that get sent late in the day when I forget to write them the day before). I know I have failings and weaknesses, and I suspect there will be others I am unaware of too. The good news is that ultimately it doesn’t matter. As I go about God’s work, as he knows our hearts, he knows our motivations. He judges our performance fairly, knowing our weaknesses and sensitive to them. More than that, however, his grace is more than enough to cover the gaps in our strength whether than be physical or emotional or in character (we don’t really know what the weakness Paul refers to was).
Father, rather than being proud in our independence, help us to be people who are interdependent, especially on you!
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