...I may as well bring up the matter of visions and revelations that God gave me. For instance, I know a man who, 14 years ago, was seized by Christ and swept away in ecstasy to the heights of heaven...Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he did in fact was push me to my knees. No danger of walking around high and mighty! At first, I didn’t think of it as a gift , and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that,
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations have cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so, the weaker I get, the stronger I become. 2 Corinthians 12: 3, 7-10 The Message
His natural mind could justify his pride. He had the best education available. He did not have consequences in His life from treating the Ten Commandments carelessly. Apparently, “the thorn” was embarrassing him before others...making him feel inadequate in front of them...
perhaps he felt that “the thorn” made him seem inefficient to do what God led him to do. However, God answered Paul’s prayer in an awe-inspiring way...He gave him... Grace.
of our flesh eyes from what is in front of us… the
Christ tells us to consider costs…
When we decide to accept Grace…
the price is...
death.
Death to self—
Surrendering those Self-Idols we put before God’s opinion of us:
“How We Look to People”;
“Perfection in Human Terms”;
“Embarrassment”;
“Self Consciousness When on Stage”;
“Not Being Transparent”; etc...
When we realize that receiving the
blessing of overflowing Grace will cost us, ...
We can then rest in the grace that comes to
resist the temptations that come in rapid succession:
1 - temptation to grieve the temporary death-to-self-bankruptcy feelings that can follow instead of
childlike trusting of God
and leaving the consequences of obedience to Him...
2 - examining oneself so deeply that self-pity takes root and spreads quickly like a computer
virus.... more rapid temptation-fire ensues as the enemy then introduces
Despair and Discouragement....
who quickly become the only life of the pity party
3- temptation to resent the purchase of Grace.... as more choices to die to self
come up on our radar screen and we begin to worry about future
events that we have not yet received the Grace to endure because we are not
facing the circumstance yet .
Matthew 6:34 NLT
"So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's
trouble is enough for today."
Our Lord gives us grace for each day as it
comes, not before.
4- ultimately blaming God for having to attend the funeral of self and
the discomfort of being thrown out of the pool of "normal"
We can easily give into all of these temptations when struck with the lightening-powerful emotion of an overwhelming desire to escape at all costs, but...
When we persevere and keep daily dying to self,...
Grace resurrects us...
others see God’s power instead of our
self-sufficiency...
and our Lord receives Glory from blessing us
beyond our wildest dreams with
Grace
D eepT racks ®
Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE.
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