Taking Pleasure in our Troubles!

⁸ Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. ⁹ And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Corinthians 12:8-10

Is there something in your life that you wish wasn’t there?  Almost everyone I know has something or someone that is burdensome.  Sometimes these things involve weaknesses of our own, meaning, it’s related to an area in our physical, mental, or emotional being that is weak.  Other times it involves circumstances that are out of our hands.  Something happened to us.  We were in a wreck or an accident and now there is a burden to carry.  And still, other times it involves other people who are against us or worse, have no concern for us, as a human being with a heart and spirit. 

Any of these can be a thorn for us whether it is in the body, in the mind, or in our emotions.  It is a burden and it is difficult.  If we’re not weak, we get weak from carrying the burden constantly.  But the truth is this, we were never made to carry these burdens alone.  An African proverb says, “Two ants do not fail to pull a grasshopper.”  Or as John Heywood is credited with saying, “Many hands make light work.”  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.  For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.  But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.”  We are to help one another.  Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

There is still another who came to bear our burdens for us, in fact, He asks for them.  Psalms 55:22a says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you.”  Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  God the Father and Jesus the Son asks for your burdens.  Remove them from your shoulders and lay them at their feet. 

Paul learned a lesson that I have had to learn and re-learn too many times.  God doesn’t want for us to have a life of ease so we can coast.  Through our struggles, our burdens, we first learn that we must depend upon Jesus, we learn to have faith.  We are made strong in our weakness because we learn to turn to God.  Then through more struggles, burdens, and in impossible situations or circumstances, we learn to have more faith – the kind of faith that says, “God, if you don’t do something, there is no hope.  It is You or nothing.”  We are made stronger in our nothingness because we learn that there is only God.  His strength is made perfect in our lives when we recognize and accept that we are nothing.

This is why Paul boasts in his infirmities so he can testify to the greatness and power of Jesus his Savior.  But further, he takes pleasure in the burdens hoping that they are more than he can bear so there is no option but for Christ to be lifted up.  Paul wants nothing less than for the strength and power of Christ to be evident and overcoming in every area of his life.  He seems to be saying, “Oh Lord, give me another burden, so You can bear it!”  “The battle is the Lord’s” David cried in 1 Samuel 17 in the face of Goliath “and He will give you into our hands!” 

What is my burden today?  Am I giving it to the Lord so He can fight for me?  Do I hand it over expectantly as Paul and David did so the Lord can be glorified in my weakness?  Do I have the kind of faith that rejoices in saying, “Jesus, my Savior, it is You or nothing!”?  Do I praise God for my burdens, my pain, my deepest hurts, because they allow me the opportunity to turn them over, for Him to show His power, and for me to testify to His saving grace?  May I thank God for the impossible situations today so I can learn and re-learn how to have complete and total faith in Him.