made perfect. in weakness.

Paul (an apostle called by God) suffered. He had been in prison, been flogged, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked. He had been in danger from rivers, bandits, his own countrymen. He went without sleep, without food, without water. He had been cold and naked. Amidst all of this, he pleaded, on more than one occasion, to the Lord to take it away from him.

The Lord's response?

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Paul's response?

"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."

I don't know about you, but I can most definitely say that if I had went through all of the above suffering that Paul went through, it would probably be reeeeeeally hard for me to boast about my weaknesses. Paul had previously said that he would not boast about himself, except about his weaknesses. The whole point of his boasting was "for Christ's sake".

I guess that's what I'm about to do. I take no credit. I want God to have it. For making me feel broken. So broken. For making me feel weak. For making me feel lonely. For making me literally cry out to him.

The Lord's response (written above) is one I have heard over and over and over again. But, I do not think it was until just now, just recently, that I have really experienced what that means. I have witnessed  God's power working through me because of these broken times. It's very easy, when life is going easy, to not depend on God for much because it feels as if he is already providing everything. For some reason, it takes brokeness, weakness, and loneliness for me to realize that I have no other choice but to lean on him. To depend on him. To trust him.

"For when I am weak, then I am strong." Strong in the Lord because he is first strong for me.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10