It's all You Need
“Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
Some would say that Paul gave up a lot to follow Christ. Paul was a Pharisee. He was powerful and influential. He was well known. Paul was proud. He went about strong-arming Christians and persecuting them, until he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. Suddenly, the man who thought he could see everything was blinded by the light of the risen Savior. Paul went from depending on himself, to depending on others, to ultimately depending on the one he was actually persecuting: Jesus.
Eventually, Paul developed what the bible calls a “thorn in the flesh.” There is a lot of speculation about what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. Some scholars say it was a physical condition or infirmity. Whatever it was, there are a few things we know for certain about it:
Its purpose was to keep Paul from becoming proud.
Paul begged the Lord to take it away.
God didn’t take it away.
God didn’t remove the thorn, but the thorn kept Paul from becoming proud once again. We’d all do well to have something that keeps us from becoming proud. Pride is an enemy of the cross. Pride says, “Look what I can do.” In our weakness, we rely on those who are stronger than we are. And when we do, it’s the strong one who gets the glory. God told Paul, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
It’s when we are at our weakest that we are best positioned to let God’s power work through us. It’s in our weakness that his grace is not only welcomed, it’s all we need.