Aches and Pains — and Prayer!
There’s that wonderful word sufficient again! “My grace is sufficient for thee!” Jesus Christ is able to meet our physical needs as well as our spiritual and material needs!
Perhaps you, too, have a “thorn in the flesh,” some physical affliction that God has permitted in your life. Paul’s affliction was not the result of sin or careless living on his part; rather, it was given to him to keep him from sinning. Like his Lord in Gethsemane, Paul prayed three times that God would remove the thorn; but God did not do so. God did not answer Paul’s prayer affirmatively, but He did meet Paul’s need! He gave him the grace to turn pain into victory and weakness into power.
The older a man gets, the more he appreciates a strong, healthy body. Certainly a Christian ought to take good care of “the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Co. 6:19) for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of those who depend on him. But the older we get, the more we feel the “burden of the body”! How easy it is to excuse ourselves from Christian responsibilities simply because we “don’t feel up to it.”
Christ purchased your body when He died for you on the cross. He wants you to glorify Him and magnify Him through your body (Phil. 1:20-21). He knows your physical weaknesses, and His grace is sufficient to overcome them. Only Christ can change weakens into strength! If today you just “don’t feel up to it,” read 2 Corinthians 11:23-33 and see what the grace of God did for Paul!
(Copyright, Warren W. Wiersbe. First appeared in Thoughts for Men on the Move. May not be copied or reproduced without express written permission of the author.)
Dr. Warren Wiersbe (1929-2019) was an internationally known Bible teacher, author, and conference speaker. He graduated in 1953 from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. While attending seminary, he was ordained as pastor of Central Baptist Church in 1951 and served until 1957. From September 1957 to 1961, Wiersbe served as Director of The Literature Division for Youth for Christ International. From 1961 to 1971 he pastored Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky south of Cincinnati, Ohio. His sermons were broadcast as the “Calvary Hour” on a local Cincinnati radio station. From 1971 to 1978, He served as the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago 1971 to 1978. While at Moody Church he continued in radio ministry. Between August 1979 and March 1982, he wrote bi-weekly for Christianity Today as “Eutychus X”, taught practical theology classes at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and wrote the course material and taught a Doctor of Ministry course at Trinity and Dallas Seminary. In 1980 he transitioned to Back to the Bible radio broadcasting network where he worked until 1990. Dr. Wiersbe became Writer in Residence at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids and Distinguished Professor of Preaching at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. In his lifetime, Dr. Wiersbe wrote over 170 books—including the popular Be series, which has sold over four million copies. Dr. Wiersbe was awarded the Gold Medallion Lifetime Achievement by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).
