Volume 25, Issue 9
WisconsinChristianNews.com
Page 21
Limping Saints
Whether or not that thorn was poor eyesight or something else, God left him live with that thorn and promised that His grace would be sufficient. Paul’s re- sponse is admirable. “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
that is why we are here, to glorify our Maker and Redeemer.
Rod & Staff Publishers W6053 County Rd. X Withee, WI 54498 (715) 229-9400
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. There- fore I take pleasure in infirmities, in re- proaches, in necessi- ties, in persecutions,
By Isaac D. Martin February 2025
in distresses, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9b- 10). The list of things that Paul took pleasures in is what gives most people grief! Even those of us who think we are walking with the Lord. We have had it so good for so long that we have come to believe that this is the way God takes care of those who love Him. It is one thing to endure those various experiences and quite another to take pleasures in them. There is no sitting around and wondering why God is dealing out to you such difficulties one after another if you are taking pleasures in them! The secret is finding grace and actually feeling that grace under girding us through such difficulties. Could Paul have accom- plished more if he had no thorn in his flesh? If he had been ex- alted above measure because of the revelations he had, it would have greatly hindered his effectiveness. The lesson we need to learn is; God uses handicapped peo- ple to serve Him in special ways. If we are living with some physical limitation, trust God to use that to His glory and to our good. We also can take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. The Christian who accepts life as coming from the good hand of the Father can rejoice in the midst of the difficulty. Such re- joicing is a glory to God and
Jacob was a schemer. He was a young man that looked ahead. He knew that Esau was in line to inherit the blessing of the eldest. Esau did not have to think about it. It was his. However, Jacob was a twin brother and he thought about that blessing being so close, yet not his, and when the opportunity came for him to bargain with Esau, he took it. Esau, being the kind of man he was, prob- ably spent little or no time thinking about the inherited double portion. He may have even figured that Jacob was not serious about the matter. Whatever, God saw it as despising his birthright. Jacob was natured to enjoy bargaining. When God gave him that dream or vision with the promise of blessing of years to come, he vowed to give God a tenth of all his increase if God would indeed be with him and bless him. He had his way of scheming when he was working with Laban. It does seem that God went along with it and blessed him. Jacob acknowledged that all those blessings were because of God later when Laban confronted him about his hasty departure. However, when he heard that Esau was coming with four hundred men, he put together a sizable gift to appease him be- fore the meeting. He spent the night wrestling with the angel and would not let the angel go until he had a blessing. But that encounter left him limping for the rest of his life. He seems to have lost his scheming tendency. He is now a giver in- stead of a taker. The gift he sent ahead was no small gift. By the time he met Pharaoh in Egypt, he was a very humble man. See Gen- esis 47:9. The Apostle Paul was an aggressive fol- lower of the Jewish religion and was ready to imprison or kill any believer. One day the Lord “blinded” him with a light brighter than the noonday sun. It seems that although he received his sight after Ananias prayed for him, that his sight was not as good as before. At least, he lived with a thorn in the flesh and asked the Lord to remove that thorn.
CALLAHAN & SON Plumbing & Septic Systems
148 Cedar St. • Black River Falls, Wis. (715) 284-8148 • CallahanPlumbing8148@gmail.com
Made with FlippingBook Converter PDF to HTML5