Tuesday January 26, 2021

In the busyness of our everyday lives, we often fail to prepare our hearts and minds for reading God’s word and experience God in this time. Take a moment to allow this prayer to lead you into your time with God today.

As I enter into this time of prayer and reflection, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly; to re-center my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

Holy and loving God, in this new season I invite you to shape my soul with your words and inspire my life with your works. Teach me to walk in the way of peace and grace. AMEN.

2 Corinthians 12:7b-10

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

This past weekend we highlighted three words that summarize how the Apostle Paul described what fueled his personal transformation. Today we are focusing on the word RELATIONSHIP.

Our frequent mistake in pursuing deep change is believing that we can do it on our own. In today’s passage, Paul describes one of the great ironies of a deepening relationship with Christ. We grow more confident in God’s power and more willing to admit that we are weak.

We can only speculate about the struggle that Paul described as “a thorn.” Perhaps it’s enough to acknowledge that we all struggle with our own imperfection. Can you relate to that? Are you struggling right now with something? What Paul heard was, “my grace is sufficient for you… my power is made perfect in weakness.” In what way might those words speak to you today in your struggle?

Father, help me to live this day to the full, being true to You, in every way.

Spirit, help me to love the lost, proclaiming Christ in all I do and say.
Amen.

*Our opening and closing prayers are adapted from Lectio365, a mobile application developed by the 24-7 Prayer Network. To find out more about this resource, visit this link.