{"id":5325,"date":"2014-05-09T00:05:09","date_gmt":"2014-05-09T07:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5325"},"modified":"2014-05-08T23:45:40","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T06:45:40","slug":"5325","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/05\/09\/5325\/","title":{"rendered":"Boasting"},"content":{"rendered":"

That experience is worth boasting about, but I\u2019m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won\u2019t do it, because I don\u2019t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.<\/p>\n

\tThree different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, \u201cMy grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.\u201d So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That\u2019s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. <\/p>\n

\tYou have made me act like a fool\u2014boasting like this. You ought to be writing commendations for me, for I am not at all inferior to these \u201csuper apostles,\u201d even though I am nothing at all. (2 Corinthians 12:5-11)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tWhen all you have left is Jesus, you\u2019ll realize Jesus is enough. What was Paul\u2019s \u201cthorn in the flesh?\u201d Paul often used the word \u201cflesh\u201d to mean the sin nature. So perhaps Paul was referring to some sin in his life that he could never overcome\u2014like a bad temper, perhaps.<\/p>\n

\tJesus refused to remove Paul\u2019s thorn, whatever it was. Instead, Jesus told Paul that his \u201cgrace\u201d was enough. What is grace? It is an undeserved gift. So why did Jesus tell Paul that some undeserved gift was enough for him? Because the underserved gift was God\u2019s forgiveness. Jesus died for all our sins. Whether we keep on having a bad temper or not, thanks to what Jesus did on the cross, God has already forgiven us. <\/p>\n

\tSo there was no reason for Paul to worry about his thorn, whatever it might have been. Jesus\u2019 power works best in our weakness. Only when we realize how weak we are can we be amazed by the power of God\u2014because only then do we recognize that it is God\u2019s power at work in our lives rather than our own power. Jesus really is all we have\u2014but that\u2019s like the richest man in the world saying that all he has is money.<\/p>\n

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That experience is worth boasting about, but I\u2019m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5327,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325\/revisions\/5327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}