Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)
7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 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. 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.
What do we do when things don’t go well; when our planning and prayers leave us in pain or in need? We keep our focus on Christ alone. When we struggle, we call out to God for help. When we are in pain and broken-hearted, we pour out our disappointment and sadness to our Heavenly Father. And when we can’t figure out how to move forward, we settle at the foot of the cross and pray. God is at work in our woundedness, in our struggling and in our grief. When we are weak, when we cannot do it ourselves and are forced to rely only on God, God holds us together and seeks to make us whole. This doesn’t always mean that we’ll get what we want… but it does always mean that we will stand in the grace and love of God.