His grace is sufficient

Oh my gosh, you guys. So, last time, I blogged about the perfect, theme song for my little tough season with a particular issue at work. Now I've found THE PERFECT Scripture verse for it. Now, this is a pretty common verse, for some; goodness knows how many times I've heard it, and even memorized it, but it fell afresh this morning, and I had to blog about it, before I forgot, even though it's 8:20 AM and I need to be getting my butt to work. What can I say, I know my priorities.

So the verse is:

"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me 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 (NIV)

As if that wasn't enough, check out The Message translation:
"Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and he told me,

My grace is enough; it's all you need,
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating teh gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size--abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

WOW. So much to say, but not enough time to type it all out and not enough energy to type fast enough to get it all out, so let me default to my comfort zone: bullet points.

• God allows thorns in our lives to keep us humble, so we don't get a big head.......
• The devil did his best to get me down in a pit, and while at times he got me, it was in those pit-moments, where I was also driven to my knees.......
  
• Like Paul says, I too had a clear turning point where I quit focusing on my issue and began appreciating it as an opportunity to grow...and to learn...
• Once I began appreciating the thorn as an opportunity, I got weaker, but became stronger.

Whew - had to get all that out. SO GLAD, I decided to take 5 min. and open my Bible this morning, even though I was late. That 5 min. turned into 30, but oh well. Like I said...priorities!!