Christianity Oasis Forum

[cimi]

September 28
Sunday


EVERY HARDSHIP

READ:
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
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My grace is sufficient
for you, for My
strength is made
perfect in weakness.
__2 Corinthians 12-9
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Like many towns, Enterprise, Alabama, has a prominent monument. But the monument in Enterprise is unlike any other. The statue doesn't recognize a leading citizen; it celebrates the work of a beetle. In the early 1900s., this boll weevil made its way from Mexico to the southern US. Within a few years it had destroyed entire crops of cotton, the primary source of revenue. In desperation, farmers started growing another crop__peanuts. Realizing they had been dependent on one crop for too long, they credited the beetle with forcing them to diversify, which led to increased prosperity.

The boll weevil is like things that come into our lives and destroy what we have worked hard to accomplish. Devastation results__ sometimes financial, emotional, or physical__and it is frightening. We witness the end of life as we know it. But as the people of enterprise learned, the loss of what is old is an opportunity to discover something new. God may use hardship to get us to give up a bad habit or learn a new virtue. He used a thorn in Paul's flesh to teach him about grace (2 cor. 12:7-9).

Instead of striving to preserve old habits that are no longer effective, we can view every hardship as an opportunity for God to cultivate a new virtue in us. __Julie Ackerman Link

```````````````````````O much-tried saint, with fainting heart,````````````````````````
``````````````````````````The thorn with its abiding pain,```````````````````````````
```````````````````````With all its wearing, ceaseless ache,``````````````````````````
```````````````````Can be the means of priceless gain. __Anon.``````````````````````
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God often uses bitter experience to make us better.

***************************************Today's Bible Reading __ 2 Corinthians 12:7-10************************************

7 And lest I should be
exalted above measure
by the abundance of the
revelations, a thorn in the
flesh was given to me,
a messenger of Satan
to buffet me, lest I be
exalted above measure.

8 Concerning this thing I
pleaded with the Lord three
times that it might depart
from me. 9 And He said to
me, "My grace is sufficient
for you, for My strength is
made perfect in weakness."
Therefore most gladly I
will rather boast in my
infirmities, that the power
of Christ may rest upon me.

10 Therefore I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches,
in needs, in persecutions, in
distresses, for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, then I
am strong.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

In Paul's letter of 2 Corinthians, he repeatedly bares his soul. in
the early portions of the letter, he is forced to defend his role as an
apostle, while later he shares the heartaches of all he suffered for
Christ. Paul concludes by describing how a painful condition (an
undefined "thorn") is being used as God's instrument to teach him
lessons about grace (12:7-10). This is indeed a very transparent and
pain-filled epistle.