Strength in the Struggle: God's Grace has Got You

Have you ever experienced a trial, a miserable and troubling life situation, that seemed to drag on and on? Have you ever wondered how you could cut it short, get out of it, or if you could pray hard enough to get the trouble to end? I know I have.

Going through painful hardships is extremely difficult and it is pretty normal for our humanity to cry out for an end to our pain. There is good news regarding trials, they too shall come to an end, though we don't always see the light at the end of the tunnel.

2 Corinthians 12:17 says, "Our suffering is light and temporary and is producing for us an eternal glory that is greater than anything we can imagine."

I was also reading the passage in 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 about how the Apostle Paul was given visions and revelations directly from Jesus Christ that could have caused him to be extremely prideful and arrogant. Paul pleaded with God to remove the "thorn in his flesh" but God told Paul He planned to use the thorn for Paul's good and that God's grace was sufficient for Paul.

It is comforting to know that someone like the Apostle Paul was begging God to remove a troubling situation from his life too. Paul was not above pleading for an end to his "thorn in the flesh". And even more powerful, is to know that God's grace is all we need to get us through every single trial and hardship.

Here is the passage in 2 Corinthians 12:2-10: " I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. 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."

The last part of verse 10 - "for when I am weak, then I am strong," is such a soothing balm for our tortured souls. In your own weakness, God can show HIS strength. This is the same God who spoke the world and everything into existence. This is the God who parted the Red Sea, tumbled the walls of Jericho with shouts and trumpets, the God Who knows the beginning from the end, the God Who stepped down in the form of Jesus Christ to make the full blood sacrifice payment for our sins, the Son of God who rose from the dead . . . I could go on and on about the POWER and strength of our God.

So, when you are feeling weak, depressed, in pain, grief-stricken, hopeless, frustrated, confused, and beaten down - just know that it is during these hardships that God can show HIS strength to you, through you, and for you.

May Your Weaknesses Display God's Strength,

Sherry Joy Collier, Artist & Therapist at Sherry Joy Art