2 Corinthians 12:9

2 Corinthians 12:9 - But God 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.

By nature we are complainers. Our complaining stems from our selfish nature. In our selfishness we think that everything should go as we think it should, and when it doesn't we complain. When we get saved and turn our lives over to God this selfish nature does not just disappear. It takes work to get past it.
We still want life to be easy and anytime something does not go our way it can be a struggle not to complain. As we draw closer to God our selfish desires begin to leave, but it takes awhile.

Often times we look inside ourselves and see areas where we struggle or face temptation. In an effort to make our lives easier we pray that God will take the temptation or struggle. “Lord, help me not to struggle in that area,” we might say.

It is not wrong to want to overcome a struggle, but we need to remember that Jesus never told us that life would be easy. So often we are asking God to make life easy for us when really He just wants us to come to Him and be totally reliant on Him.

Don’t misunderstand me, I am in no way saying that we shouldn't pray to God for help to face temptation. Paul prayed that prayer and as we look at this verse we see him getting an answer that we usually don’t want to hear, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

God is telling us that He has already given us what we need to make it through our situation. It’s already been done. Really that’s good news, but if that is the case why is this ‘thing’ still a problem? I've asked myself that question many times over the years.

Here’s my thoughts on the matter. Most of the time when we are asking God to help us in a situation we are still thinking we can take the lead as we go through it. We are asking for God’s help when really we need to be surrendering that area to Him completely. The problem lies in the fact that we do not want to let it go.

If God’s power is made perfect in weakness then that means in order for His power to be made perfect in us then those ‘things’ are still our weaknesses. Paul doesn't pray that God turns his weaknesses to strengths. Instead he says that he will boast in his weaknesses, because only through them can Christ’s power rest on him.

If we want God’s strength to shine through us we must first admit we are weak and then surrender ourselves to God. Then we must trust Him to carry us through whatever we face. Only then can His power be made perfect in us.