This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day three of our look through 2 Corinthians 12. We're going to look at
verses eight and nine today. In fact, let me begin by reading those verses.

Remember, Paul was talking about his thorn in the flesh. Verse eight, "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.

'" We're going back to these verses that we looked at yesterday, looking at them
again because there's so much in these verses. I think you can see even as we
begin this chapter why it's one of my favorites in all of scripture. And here
Paul talks about what do you do with your weaknesses?

You have a thorn in the flesh. You have a physical limitation. You have a
psychological, a mental limitation in your life.

What do you do with your weaknesses? Well, Paul did two things. You should do
these same two things with any physical limitation, any emotional, any
psychological mental limitation in your life.

You should do these same two things. Number one, he prayed that the weakness
would be removed. That's good.

That's what you should do. That's where you start. He had a thorn in the flesh.

In some way he was physically limited. In some way he was sick. But he
realistically faced that illness.

He told God, "I don't want to be sick. " He told God, "I don't want this thorn.
Would you please take it away?

" In fact, he didn't do it just once. "Three times," he says, "I pleaded with
the Lord. " That's not just three days in a row.

You get this sense that there were three extended times of prayer where Paul
said, "Lord, could you take this away from me? I can't serve you like I want to
serve you with this in my life. Think about how much more I could do for you if
I didn't have this in my life.

" Paul didn't pretend that there was no sickness. He faced the problem as a real
problem and he turned to God with it and he said, "God, would you take it away?
" To say that all sickness is just to be accepted, "Hey, it happens.

That's the way it is. You shouldn't ask God to heal you. Whatever God gives, you
just have to accept it.

" To say that you should just do that is not scripturally true. Paul teaches us
here to pray for healing. In Paul's case, God said no to that healing,
apparently not just once, but three times.

As he prayed about it, Paul began to get a sense of why God was saying no to the
healing. God said no to a healing and Paul accepted that truth in his life, a
truth that he would have to live with that sickness. You see, to say that all
sickness is just to be accepted is not biblically true, but to say that all
sickness is outside of the will of God also is not biblically true.

This illness put Paul right in the center of God's will. In fact, to say that
all sickness can be cured through enough faith. You heard that one?

If you just had enough faith, if you just prayed with enough faith, God would
have to heal that sickness. That is not biblically true. I'm telling you, Paul
had enough faith.

He asked God three times and God said no. In fact, to say that all sickness is
because of some personal sin is not true. This sickness was not because of
Paul's sin.

This sickness was used to express God's grace. This is a passage that teaches us
much about healing and how God heals and how you and I need to think about the
illnesses and the limitations in our lives. We should pray for healing.

God may say yes, he may say no, he may say wait. If he says no to a healing,
then you accept the truth that God wants to do something in my life through
this. So what did Paul do with his weaknesses?

Number one, he prayed that they would be removed. That's good. That's where you
start.

Number two, he boasted in them. First, he prayed about them, asking God to
remove them. Second, when God said no, he boasted in them, praising God for
them, what God could do through them.

We read in these passages and these words of Paul that weakness became strength.
We're going to talk about that more tomorrow. But you need to know that
weaknesses do not automatically become strength.

Notice Paul says, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that"
- those words "so that" are extremely important there - "so that Christ's power
may rest on me. " Somehow it was in the boasting, Paul's attitude towards the
weaknesses, that Christ's power came into his life. Paul says, "Power is
perfected in weakness.

" So you lean those two words up against each other. Power and weakness. Power,
it's the Greek word dunamis.

You probably heard that that's the word that we get the word dynamite from. Even
more significant, I think, was its meaning then. It just simply means to be
able, to have the capacity to do something.

To be able, instead of limited, to be able to serve the Lord. That power is
perfected in weakness. The Greek word asthenia, which the background of that is
to stumble.

It points to our human frailty. And between those two words is perfected. How
can perfected stand between power and weaknesses?

Power is perfected in weaknesses. Ability is perfected through stumbling. Our
capacity is perfected through our frailty.

That doesn't seem right to me. It doesn't matter whether it feels right to me.
It is true.

Because you see, and we'll talk about this more tomorrow, when I depend on my
power, I'm only dependent on me. And how much can I do? It's in my weakness that
I'm reminded I must depend on God's power.

And Paul says the way that he reminded himself to do that was to boast about his
weaknesses. So that Christ's power could rest on him. Power through weakness is
not automatic.

Some get weaker through their weakness. Some get angry through their weakness.
Some get, many get bitter through their weakness.

But some experience God's power through their weaknesses. How does that come?
The power comes when I keep boasting.

The word boast sometimes has the idea of taking joy in something. It's not being
prideful about something. That's not what he's talking about here.

That's why we keep getting caught up in this word boast as we go through 2
Corinthians. It's a word to us that seems to always mean be prideful about. But
there's another meaning here, and that is to take joy in something, to delight
in something.

So Paul is saying I keep taking joy in the fact that God can use me even in my
weakness, even through my weakness. I'm going to take joy in that. When I can
find joy in what God can do through my weaknesses, in spite of my weaknesses,
that is the point.

That's the very point at which my weakness becomes his strength. Our Father, as
we pray together, today we bring to you our weakness. That's the point in my
life where I'm facing weakness.

I know that you're there. I know that you care. But Paul teaches me even more
than that.

I know that you want to use me even in spite of my weakness and even through my
weakness as I depend on you. So Lord, I pray for a change of heart right now if
it's needed. I pray for a change of mind that instead of fighting that weakness,
if you've said no to a healing, I would begin to rejoice, to boast in that
weakness.

Not that I have the weakness, but that you can use me even in the midst of it.
Lord, there is nothing, there is no weakness that can keep you from working in
my life, that will stop you from loving me, that will keep you from using me.
And so this moment, this day, right now, I settle it in my heart, I settle it in
my mind that you want to use me no matter what.

And Lord, as my weakness becomes your strength, show me what you're doing. Let
me see it. Let me see with eyes of faith like I've never seen before.

Father, I come to you and on the altar of my praise to you, I lift up this
weakness and I do exactly what Paul did. First, I ask, would you heal me for
your glory? Would you heal me?

And then Lord, I ask right alongside of that, if you're not willing to do that
for some reason that I don't understand, would you use even this weakness? And
would you help me to learn to boast in this weakness? So give me healing and
give me boasting.

Help me to take joy in what you are doing. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
Tomorrow, we're going to look together at the process, how God works in our
lives so that our weaknesses begin to become his strength.