Bible Reading Plan | Devotion for the week of August 23, 2020

Weekly reading: 2 Corinthians 12 – Galatians 3
Passages referenced: 2 Corinthians 12:9-10;
Galatians 2:19-20; 2 Samuel 22:33

“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.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

It’s hard to think about our weaknesses as anything but negative. The world tells us that we are “less than” if we show any kind of weakness or we don’t measure up to its view of success. However, as Christians, we should not only accept our weaknesses but actually embrace them. When we’re at our weakest, we have the opportunity to truly magnify the strength of the Lord. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “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.”

As I walked through a difficult season of trying to have children, I was reminded over and over of the Lord’s strength. During a time of loss, it was His power within me that helped me move forward and continue trusting in His plan. It’s in the moments of struggle that we’re reminded of how great God is and how completely we need that strength that only comes from Him. In our human nature, we are weak and sinful. But, with the Holy Spirit living and acting within us, we are a representation of the Lord’s power and strength.

The apostle Paul, a man who endured many hardships and trials of his own, was the prime example of living out God’s strength. He was challenging believers to live by faith in God and not to be slaves to the law. It was his reminder that Jesus died to free us from the law that should challenge all of us today. We aren’t called to please men and to follow a set of rules and regulations perfectly. We are set apart by the grace and redemptive love of Christ, and we are called to live by faith in Him.

“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:19-20

Let’s challenge ourselves to live fully in faith to our Lord and the grace we were saved by. We are “all one in Christ Jesus” and have His power living in us. We can put our full trust in God and remember that we have a source of strength within us that will guide us through anything we face. As 2 Samuel 22:33 reminds us, “It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.” – Brooke Price