[Dailydevo] Daily Devotion Thursday February 9, 2006

[Barry Ludwig]

Daily Devotion Thursday  February 8, 2006

The daily devotions this week are written by Pastor Ludwig. The theme this
week is "Healing."

 

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a
big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch
with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in
fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and
mighty!  At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove
it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, "My grace is enough; it's
all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness."

   Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the
handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength
moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good
cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size--abuse, accidents,
opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I
get, the stronger I become. 

 

Sometimes all the prayers in the world do not result in healing. I must
confess that I have no slick answers for human suffering. Who could have
possibly been closer to God than Saint Paul and yet God did not heal him of
his chronic illness. It is easy to understand why some may some become
cynical and doubt either the intention or even the existence of God. This
did not happen to Paul. Instead, his illness became a sign of his
identification with the sufferings of Christ. Because his body was weak, he
believed that it gave God the opportunity to build in him the strength of
character of his Lord and Savior, Jesus. Such a perspective led to a life
that changed the course of Western history.

 

We will never fully know the mind of God, but we do know the love of God's
son, Jesus who in his suffering and death, transformed our own suffering
into an opportunity to allow the power of God to shine within us.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://zlc-aa.org/pipermail/dailydevo_zlc-aa.org/attachments/20060209/1dd0f198/attachment.htm