Hi Steemians! Today's post for the #bibleliteracychallenge has a lot of meaning for me. This morning I received an email from a good friend who has been struggling for years with certain issues. The email began with a reference to Paul's "thorn in the flesh" from 2 Corinthians 12:8:
"Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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. 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."
Then came the following question from my friend:
"Why, even though I must have this thorn in my side, do I not feel overwhelming grace and compensating strength?
That's a good question, and one that deserves considerable thought.
Recall the story of Job and his friends. Upon seeing Job's immense suffering, his friends came and sat silently with him until Job began to speak. When it was their turn, each of his friends offered their opinion. Some of it sounded logical. Yet they did not speak rightly about God and were it not for Job interceding for his friends, God would have destroyed them for their careless words. That is not the mistake I want to be making!
Rather than analyze the details of my friend's situation, I reflected on my own experience: the day when I cried out, and God answered me, and made me bold with strength in my own soul.
In my early 20's, I moved away from home to pursue my career. Some 750 miles away from all of my friends and family, I began to feel God tugging at my conscience. I grew depressed and frustrated, and eventually I couldn't take it any longer. Something had to give.
I recall trying to pray, but it felt as if my prayers were just bouncing off of a brick wall. They didn't seem to be going anywhere. Was God rejecting me? I continued to pray anyway, sensing that my sinful life was the reason my prayer felt rejected.
I apologized to God for my sins and said I wouldn't stop praying until He heard me and made me know that He had heard me.
What happened next was a life-changing milestone in my life.
With an absolute broken heart, I sought God. And He reached out and touched me with an overwhelming sense of grace.
He touched me in a way that for the first time, God became real to me. No longer was He just a God that I'd read about and heard about. He was r-e-a-l!
That's the day I had a heartfelt understanding that God wants a relationship with us, and sin hinders us from that relationship. My depression and frustration drove me to God.
Maybe that's the purpose of having a thorn in the flesh. Or maybe it's there because God is trying to get our attention. Maybe he's compassionately yelling to us through our infirmities.
I paused our conversation with this: Do you actively pursue God? Do you want God to look at you as He did David, and call you His friend? It’s all about our relationship with Him. All of it.
You are invited to Join the 30-Day #bibleliteracychallenge!
I invite you all to this 30-day Bible Literacy Challenge! The goal with the #bibleliteracychallenge is to help you to memorize at least 1 Bible verse per day for 30 days.
Who's with me?
How to do the 30-day Bible Literacy Challenge:
Resteem and upvote this post (if you'd like to).
Create a photo of a Bible verse you've written down or typed, along with the #bibleliteracychallenge tag and your Steemit name. For those who may need a little help, I use Canva to create the photos with text overlay.
Don't forget to add the title Bible Literacy Challenge and tag your post #bibleliteracychallenge
Somewhere on your post indicate which day you are on in your own personal challenge. For me, this post marks day 7.
Don't forget to resteem and upvote to encourage biblical literacy!
