"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
2 Corinthians 12:9
This can be a hard verse to understand. Today I was listening to an old Neal A. Maxwell talk that gave me some insight though, so I wanted to talk about it. In the talk I was listening to ("Meek and Lowly" 1996), he quoted Lorenzo Snow as saying this: "Every one of us who has not already had the experience must yet meet it of being tested in every place where we are weak." ... That's a huge statement, but it goes along with so many things that we see in the scriptures, and really I think we can see this in our own lives too. God promises us that if we come unto him, he will make weak things strong unto us (Ether 12:27), and this is the way that he does it. He gives us trials in our weak areas, and helps us to make those parts of ourselves better. It isn't the way we would probably choose to become stronger. It would be nice if we could just be zapped with a competence ray or something instead, but our trials are important, because they turn us into the people that we truly want to be.
Paul, I think, really understood this, which is why he could say that he gloried in his infirmities. They were a way for him to experience the power of God in his life, and also a path to self-improvement (with God's help, of course). In the same talk I mentioned above, Neal A. Maxwell quotes Moroni 7:44 (“For none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart”) and asks "can we ever truly and fully accept ourselves until we become more like them?" It isn't a one way thing with God not finding us acceptable, but also that we are unacceptable to ourselves. We see our weaknesses, and we know that we need to change, and honestly, in many many cases we can't see the problem well enough to work on it. Weaknesses after all. And so we have to go to God, and we understand that we aren't perfect. We learn humility and strength, and how to love ourselves more as we learn.
That might be the key to Paul's joy in infirmities right there. He asked God to take away a specific challenge three times (2 Corinthians 12:8), and maybe he wanted a lightning bolt from heaven and some instant perfection, as we probably all do sometimes. Instead, the Lord left him with his problem... but something changed anyway. Paul realized that his weakness was actually helping him learn... that God *was* answering his prayer--just in a different way than he expected. It was helping him learn humility, and helping him learn to turn to God for help. Instead of being strong and perhaps prideful, he could be meek, and feel the hand of God in his life. Which is something we can all have.
Today, let's work on appreciating our challenges, and recognize that they bring us closer to God. As we plead with him for help, and do as he asks, he will grant us strength and hope and improvement, so that we can truly be strong and at peace with God, others, and ourselves. :)
2 Corinthians 12:9
This can be a hard verse to understand. Today I was listening to an old Neal A. Maxwell talk that gave me some insight though, so I wanted to talk about it. In the talk I was listening to ("Meek and Lowly" 1996), he quoted Lorenzo Snow as saying this: "Every one of us who has not already had the experience must yet meet it of being tested in every place where we are weak." ... That's a huge statement, but it goes along with so many things that we see in the scriptures, and really I think we can see this in our own lives too. God promises us that if we come unto him, he will make weak things strong unto us (Ether 12:27), and this is the way that he does it. He gives us trials in our weak areas, and helps us to make those parts of ourselves better. It isn't the way we would probably choose to become stronger. It would be nice if we could just be zapped with a competence ray or something instead, but our trials are important, because they turn us into the people that we truly want to be.
Paul, I think, really understood this, which is why he could say that he gloried in his infirmities. They were a way for him to experience the power of God in his life, and also a path to self-improvement (with God's help, of course). In the same talk I mentioned above, Neal A. Maxwell quotes Moroni 7:44 (“For none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart”) and asks "can we ever truly and fully accept ourselves until we become more like them?" It isn't a one way thing with God not finding us acceptable, but also that we are unacceptable to ourselves. We see our weaknesses, and we know that we need to change, and honestly, in many many cases we can't see the problem well enough to work on it. Weaknesses after all. And so we have to go to God, and we understand that we aren't perfect. We learn humility and strength, and how to love ourselves more as we learn.
That might be the key to Paul's joy in infirmities right there. He asked God to take away a specific challenge three times (2 Corinthians 12:8), and maybe he wanted a lightning bolt from heaven and some instant perfection, as we probably all do sometimes. Instead, the Lord left him with his problem... but something changed anyway. Paul realized that his weakness was actually helping him learn... that God *was* answering his prayer--just in a different way than he expected. It was helping him learn humility, and helping him learn to turn to God for help. Instead of being strong and perhaps prideful, he could be meek, and feel the hand of God in his life. Which is something we can all have.
Today, let's work on appreciating our challenges, and recognize that they bring us closer to God. As we plead with him for help, and do as he asks, he will grant us strength and hope and improvement, so that we can truly be strong and at peace with God, others, and ourselves. :)
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