EXPAND TO READ: 2 CORINTHIANS 12 (HCSB)
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 21): Such a powerful verse in Paul’s writing to Corinth. He grieves for those who have yet to repent of things such as moral impurity, sexual immorality, and promiscuity. He doesn’t judge them, he doesn’t put them down, he doesn’t degrade or defame them; he simply states that he grieves for them. I feel this is my sin confession verse because I know You have grieved and are still grieving for me for the things I have yet to confess to You and repent of since coming to faith. I have fallen to all three of the sins that Paul grieved over in this verse. Unfortunately, I have fallen to all of these more than once in my life. I have been better as of late as I’ve only really fallen to moral impurity recently since becoming more serious about my faith. I owe all of this maturity in my spiritual journey to You, Father. Please forgive me for taking so long to get to even the point I’m at now in my faith. Forgive me for grieving You for so long due to my own selfishness and immaturity. Help me to be better and remind me daily of Your blessings on my life so that I can lean on those instead of trying to fill what I perceive as a gap in my life with something sinful.
PROMISE (verse 9): The promise You make us here is one that I often forget to live by. I often try to do things on my own and try to put on a strong exterior instead of living in this promise. You promise us that Your grace is sufficient and that our power is perfected in our weaknesses. I should not live in a way where I feel I have to put on a strong exterior at all times, because Your grace has showered over me more times than I can count and continues to. With Your grace, I can embrace my fleshly weaknesses as that will make me more powerful through You. Help me to become more humble and more willing to show my weaknesses, Father. Help me to embrace my soft-heartedness that You have bestowed on my soul. I often try to cover it up, but I know it’s there because You have put it there. Remind me that Your promises are far greater than anything the world expects of me in this life. It’s okay for me to show my weaknesses because Your grace is sufficient and through Your grace I am powerful. Thank You for this promise, Father!
ATTITUDE (verse 10): This verse kind of extends the promise verse just before it, but I do feel it’s an attitude I must change in my spiritual walk with You. Paul says that he takes pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and pressures because of Christ. Paul says that when he is weak, then he is strong. For most of my life, I have lived in an attitude completely opposite of this. I have lived in a way that if I am weak then I am weak, so I must live in a way that portrays strength. Help me to have an attitude that embraces my weaknesses, Father, so that through You they can become my spiritual strengths. Help me to live in a way that is not ashamed of being emotional, soft, or weak in some ways as You have blessed me with so many spiritual natures to comfort and empathize that I have gotten away from, unfortunately, as I have gotten older. I have lost the default attitudes You have given me and instead replaced them and buried them beneath attitudes that the world says I should live in. I am better than the world because Christ is with me and I am with Christ. Through Christ, I have a new, born-again identity which makes me strong no matter what the world says is weakness.
COMMAND (verses 9-10): I guess You are really trying to emphasize these two verses to me today, Father, because they seem to be touching my heart and soul rather deeply. You emphasize twice that Your grace is sufficient and that we are living in strength when we embrace our weaknesses. You command us to embrace the fact that Your grace is sufficient no matter what this world brings in front of us. No matter what this world may define as a man, Your definition of a man is that through Your grace we are made perfect and strong. We do not and should not ever feel the need to wear a mask in this life to cover up any weaknesses just because the world labels it as such. Help me to embrace this command, Father, so that I can walk in this life in a way that is fully embracing Your grace no matter what I or the world feels are weaknesses. You made me this way for a reason and I need to be better at embracing the person You made me to be, regardless of how the world may judge me as their judgment doesn’t matter; only Yours does.
EXAMPLE (verses 14-15, 21): I have often struggled with seeing how some people who claim to be Christians live this life, Father. There is so often judgment, hatred, arguments, and negativity between Christians in the way we think, the way we live, even the way we look at each other. I often see Christians with so much hatred in their face when things are not going the way they expect things to go in their life or when someone else, such as a politician, speaks some words that they may disagree with. I often see Christians live their life with entitlement, thinking that just because they are Christians, they should be entitled to boundless riches, glory, and respect. This is not what You’ve called us to do or be in this life, Father. Paul gives a few great examples in this scripture on this topic. The first is that he did not expect anything from the people of Corinth; rather he gave the expectation that he was simply there seeking them and nothing else. He said that he is like the parent and they the children, in the sense that the children do not save up for the parents or provide for the parents in their upbringing but the other way around. We should all be treating our faith like this, because if we always looked out for each other’s well-being instead of our own, then the world would be a far better place. In the last verse, Paul says that he grieves for those who have yet to repent for certain sins. He doesn’t condemn them, he doesn’t degrade them, he doesn’t try to judge them or make them feel bad. Instead, he says that he is grieving for them because they are still stuck in their sinful ways instead of reaping the glory and praise from our Father for allowing Him to help them overcome those sinful ways. Wow! So many Christians in this world do just the opposite and it hurts my heart to see these supposed Christians essentially giving a bad name and stereotype to Christianity, giving a bad name and stereotype to followers of Jesus. Help me to be better, Father, as I am not completely innocent in this respect either. Continue to mold me to be better at living as a Christ-follower and not a worldly Christian.
*DAILY NOTE: 21 rather short verses in today’s quiet time, yet there is so much to learn from this scripture. Thank You for the amazing lesson in grace, weakness, strength, and especially in how a true Christ follower should be living out their faith in this life. You always speak to me rather loudly now that I’m finally listening to You instead of blocking Your wisdom from my life. Today’s quiet time has shown me so much that I need to continue to work on in my spiritual journey. Thank You, Father, for the great lesson, testimony, counsel, and convictions. Continue to work in me, Father, so that my heart will not only continue to heal from my past brokenness, but also so that it may become larger to be able to embrace far more of Your grace and wisdom than I have ever embraced in my life. Thank You for this relationship and the conversation we’ve had this morning, Father. You have truly blessed me today!
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
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