2 Cor 12:9-10 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
	This passage is filled with promise for the people of God. The all-sufficiency of the truth within it will carry us through a lifetime of trials and tribulations on this earth. As we considered last time, it is only as we become weak, through the trials and tribulations, weak unto the complete death of self-interests, that we can bear all the challenges that this world launches against us in Jesus Christ. It is only in Him that we can face all obstacles with a view from God’s vantage point of how Christ can live His life out from us unto others. Those others include our spouses, our children, our parents, our siblings, our friends and our enemies. As our young and our married are faced with the forces of this age pressing upon them, we need to be so in line with the heart of God, that we hold them up in constant prayer, in constant love, in constant willingness and readiness to lay down our lives for their sake. That is part and parcel of this passage.
It highlights the active work of God in His consideration of us, His abundant grace. His grace is complete. His grace is forgiving. His grace is beyond all human comprehension. His grace is the miracle of His touch in our lives. His grace is exceedingly sufficient in every situation and dilemma. His grace is beyond measure. His grace is the life of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. 
His grace is more than sufficient for every task that is a part of our day. More than sufficient to meet every trial that presents itself in our walk on this earth. More than sufficient to meet every need that we face. More than sufficient to get us through the rigors and the stress that each day throws in our path. More than sufficient to do the great work that God has ordained for you and for me in this realm. More than sufficient to transform us into the living vessels through which Christ can live forth unto the lives that are in our sphere of influence. His grace is amazing in every aspect of His so great Love that He lavished upon us in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.
This passage stands as a comfort to the one upon whom this grace is generously lavished. It represents just one of the many wonderful promises of God to those who are afflicted for His name’s sake. He did not just expect us to endure the wrath of this age upon the name of Jesus Christ. He foreknew the hatred that would be heaped upon all those who have accepted Him as their Lord and Savior. God knew that we could never make our own way through the life that we are called to live on this earth. He opened His heart through His grace. He covers us with His Love and He soothes and comforts us with the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit.
This evening, let us continue to consider the truth of the promises of God to the afflicted for His name’s sake. In Ps 30:4-5, the people of God are told very specifically to Sing praise to the LORD, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning. This presents the basic outline of the manner in which we are to regard the working of God in our beings as He brings us into conformity with His heart in Christ Jesus. 
Initially, we are to sing praise to God for His work of grace in our lives. We are to give acknowledgement to the fact that we know that He is the One Who is bringing forth, each day, that which is necessary to establish Himself as our life. So often, Christians will blame the enemy with the things that they cannot see are from God. Because the day is filled with tribulation, blame is laid upon the adversary. The fact is that everything we face in this world can only come to us through the permission of Our Loving and Gracious God. Yes, even the things that we would consider to be terrible and devastating need to be seen in the proper perspective of being fully in line with the will of God for our lives. It is often as we come through the fiery trials, that our hearts are brought into a humble state of utter reliance upon God. It is then, when we are fully cognizant of the fact that we can not make it on our own in this world, that God can manifest Himself in all glory and grace. 
There are various aspects to the effective work of God in our lives and we are to praise Him no matter what we face. Whether we see the trials and circumstances as good or bad is immaterial. We need to give God the praise in each one of them. Because He loves us so much, He deserves the all the love of our beings. Because He works to bring about only the best in our lives, He deserves all praise and adoration. Because He holds us in such esteem in His very heart, and shows that love daily in our lives, He deserves to be worshipped with all our heart, soul and spirit.  
Our lives should resonate with the same character of praise as was witnessed in the early Christians even as they were being burned alive in the Coliseum. It was the sound of the praise of their lips, in their dying utterances of adoration to God, even in that vicious martyrdom, that rang in the ears and hearts of the crowds. Those spectators marveled in questioning yearning to know what could bring forth joy in the midst of torture and death. Those dying songs of praise rang forth to the very core of their tormentors. This unceasing praise for God is what caused the tremendous growth and spread of the truth of the salvation that is open to all men in Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Our Savior. Praise should evermore be in the hearts of the people of God. Regardless of situations, regardless of circumstances, regardless of dilemmas, we should proclaim with every fiber of our being that Our God lives, that Our God reigns, and that Our God deserves all praise and adoration.
Next is the truth of having a thankful heart in every situation. Are we able to give God thanks for working so fully in our lives through each rough period as He proves Himself faithful beyond measure?  Are we able to give heartfelt thanks to God as our self-lives are being put to death in order for His life to become our all? Is there a thankful, confident assurance that God has all things well in hand? That God will prove Himself over and over again, regardless of the outward appearances? Are we thankful for what we have in Christ, even as it means the death of ourselves? Are we able to be completely satisfied with the earthly portion that He has given us to meet each daily need? 
Thanksgiving is a direct indication of the heart. A thankful heart recognizes the love with which it is showered, even in the midst of physical want and lack. To hold firmly to the knowledge that God has given us all spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Our Savior, is complete cause for thanksgiving beyond measure. To hold forth the desire to be completely emptied of ourselves that Jesus Christ may shine forth from us in purity, should be the stimulation of great thanks unto God. Unto Him, our thanks show that we are fully incorporated into the Body of Christ on earth and in heaven. To face the reality that we now have life because of His plan and purpose should overwhelm us with gratitude for the Love of God shed upon us in Jesus Christ. 
Thanksgiving should be a characteristic of the Christian because everything we are, everything we do, everything we become is only by the active work of God in us. The ability to get through each day hinges on His grace. The capacity to face every person that wants a parcel of our time, and to do it with complete love in our hearts, requires that our hearts be filled with thanksgiving for that person, for the patience of God, and for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as needs are laid upon our hearts. As husbands and wives, have we given God all the thanks of our beings for the spouse that He prepared for us? Do we thank Him for the family to which He has joined us? Do we hold forth a thankful essence when we consider the children with whom He has blessed us, even in the midst of their rebellions and turmoil? Do we realize that we should be thankful for the managers placed over us on our jobs, or fellow coworkers? How about the leaders of our state and country, are they thought of with thanksgiving for the will of God that placed them in that position?
For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning. How true this becomes as we grow in the knowledge of our Lord. We do have those times when we sense that we are grieving the Holy Spirit by our words, our deeds, our thoughts, or our careless disregard for the things of God. We do have those dealings with God wherein we feel that we are being severely disciplined in order to bring us into line with what His plan for our life entails. But the truth is that what we are experiencing is but for the moment. It is but a brief time of being under His discipline in order that we may enjoy the fullness of His eternal presence. We are never separated from the love of God. Sometimes we may think that we are far from God because of our disobedience and our selfishness. But that is only a split second in the consideration of the love which He has lavished upon us in Christ Jesus. We need to come to the place where we recognize that our obedience to God brings forth greater treasures in the hearts that we have before Him, than all our attitudes of self absorption and greed. 
There is another aspect that we must consider in the effective work of God’s grace. There are those times of mourning in our earthly losses. When we consider the loved ones who are now with Him in glory, we miss them, and we are saddened in our hearts and souls. There is a void that nothing but God can fill. As we suffer through the sadness of our beings, in whatever area we have experienced this tremendous loss; we have the complete promise of God that we will see a better dawn. He is there to comfort us and to hold us close to His heart. He sends His ministering agents to bring forth the soothing encouragement that God does indeed have all things well in hand. Our nights may be filled with frustration and with tears and with the severe imaginings of our grief, but the morning springs anew with the life that we have in Christ. We may struggle through the night, wrestling with our worries and our fears, but the dawn’s light brings forth the newness of the day that God has created. There is a fresh perspective in the morning that God has ordered. There is a joy that creeps into our beings as His Son rises over the horizon of our grief to shine upon our faces and dry away our tears. Each day becomes filled with more and more of the love of God as we look to Him to get us through it. Each morning bursts forth with hope in the Lord Jesus Christ as He makes Himself known in the complete fullness of the comfort of the Holy Spirit. God is so gracious in the creation of the dawn as it brings forth the knowledge that it is but a shadow of the dawn that our lives have in Jesus Christ. There is all hope in the beloved Son of God, each day as He shines forth in the glory of His being.
 …Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me…This entire evening, we have looked at things from our perspective as the afflicted in this world. We are considering the manner in which we suffer for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are seeing the avenue open to us in trusting that God has all things well in hand. So often, we tend to keep ourselves as the focus. We look at the troubles, the problems, the disasters in terms of how each one affects us in the long run. We search for escape routes by which we hope we can come through each dilemma relatively unscathed. We become determined not to allow anything to ruin our plans on this earth. That is a sad existence, to constantly be looking at our stakes in the situations. We need to ask God to develop in us, His perspective of looking at the lives that we are called upon to live on this earth. We need to learn to have the focus in our lives centered on Him, not on us. We need to mature in the Lord to the point that we are lessened that He can increase. Less of me and more of Thee oh Lord! That should be our heart’s desire.
Our lives should be poured forth unto Him as the torrents of this age flow over us. Are we in pain? Yes, often dire pain, but is it a pain that is unknown to God? No. Are we less than able to deal with the circumstances that are filling our days? Absolutely, but He is in control of every situation. Is the storm of rage from this age scorching our hearts as it burns asunder all the fibers of our safety and dependence upon our selves? Rejoice in that goodness of the Lord! Accept it all with the view to the value of Christ that will be forthcoming unto others in our lives. Rather than our anxieties, and hurts, and struggles, consider the One by Whom we have life on this earth. Be thankful that we are showered with the power of Christ to face all that is part of being human. Consider the joy that we are giving the Father as He works out His plan and purpose on this earth. His desire, that must become be our desire. 
His Love should be what is caused to flow forth from our beings into the lives of others. It is His power and none of our own that should cause our hearts to rejoice in the myriad of opportunities that present themselves in our lives. These are openings for Him to prove His faithfulness every moment of every day. The circumstances of our lives are the avenues by which He is able to prove His Omniscience and His Omnipotence day in and day out. Yes, it is far beyond all human understanding, but not beyond the spiritual understanding with which we are indwelled.  1 John 5:20 … And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 
The understanding that is of God is not hindered by emotional decay. It is not bothered with dramatic interpretation in an effort to devise its meaning. It is the understanding that is ours as the Holy Spirit operates freely in our lives. It is the knowledge that God is in control of the entirety of this universe, and yet, He so loved you and me that He held us in His heart of Love even before the moment of our conception. He takes a personal interest in each one of His Believers, His Church. He invests Himself into us, individually meeting every need as it arises in our specific walk on this earth.
I wonder if we have ever fully sought to have the Lord open His divine understanding in us. Have we dwelt on the unparalleled truth that we are known by God? Every thought, every expression, every deed, everything about us is open unto His eyes and understanding. Do you realize that He knows us better than we know ourselves? We deceive ourselves with all kinds of justifications for actions, reasons for our lack of spiritual development. We are so good at hiding our true motives in dealing with others. But we cannot fool God. We cannot devise an escape route from the work that He chooses to do in our lives. Much like Jonah of old, we may try to go another direction, but God will see us through to that which is His heart’s desire. He knows our response to His call. He knows our shortfalls and our inadequacies. He knows our every whim and fancy. What is most amazing, in all of this, is the fact that even knowing every aspect about us, every garbage heap of our soul, every deceitful essence of our human nature, in spite of every corrupt thing that is in us; He chose to love us to the uttermost in Christ Jesus. 
His understanding is far beyond us, and we should be so thankful for that truth. We are not measured by who we are; we are measured by the acceptance of the love of God in Jesus Christ indwelling us. It is then that we can truly marvel at how much God knows about us. He finds every hiding place of self within our heart. He knows every crumb of hatred that manifests itself instead of love. He works so loving and effectively to bring about the spiritual understanding from within us, through the Holy Spirit. This understanding is not only for our benefit in dealing with the situations of our lives, it is for the understanding of others. We are called unto service, the service of love. Just as He so fully made known in our lives the overwhelming love of Jesus Christ, so does He use our lives to bring the love of Christ unto others.    
It is at this point that we need to be very clear in our understanding. We are not the ones who determine who is to receive love and who is to receive eternal damnation. This is not at all possible with the imperfect human mind and insight. Only God can judge the heart of men as they stand before His throne of judgment. In that moment, every one of us will be entirely revealed. None of us, apart from the covering of Christ’s righteousness, has any standing before God. There is no sense of superiority that will stand in His presence. Our attitudes of being more spiritual will echo the infamous Pharisee on the street corner thanking God that he wasn’t like the sinners around him. That attitude will be fully revealed as self-centered glorification at the expense of others. We need to be filled with love for the world that is lost in its sin and death rather than cursing it to hell. We need to be seeking after the Lord to open in us hearts that will be completely given to the service of His love for the lost, rather than throwing them mentally and spiritually to the wolves. We need to be holding up our enemies in prayer and in love. Holding up our spiteful neighbors and coworkers in the joy that we can minister love unto them, rather than cursing them with every breathe. 
We need to ask the Lord to develop, in us, the understanding that was put forth in the prayer of the Apostle Paul as he encouraged his Ephesian brethren. In Eph 1:18-20, we read I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,… We should be living in the reality of our heavenly seating for the sake of others. It will never be with a show of superiority. We must consider others with contriteness and humility since it was only by the grace of God that He chose to love one as vile and unworthy as ourselves. We must freely love others who are trapped in the bog from which we have been lifted by Christ. In all honesty to the Lord, it should be with the heart that knows, err for the grace of God, go I. Our beings should be flooded with the evidence of love for fellow man, and the desire for all to come to know Christ as we know Him. There should be evident the accuracy of our lives being fully unto the Lord. As we are considered by others, it should be with the deliberation that we have loved them in spite of their inadequacies, since that is how we have been loved by God.
All of this should be true despite the torment that is heaped upon us by the inhabitants of this realm. Our love should flow freely, even as they are stoning us with the hatred and the ridicule and the mockery of this age. Even as we suffer in this realm, we should hold them forth for the Love of God to forgive them, and to indwell them, and to hold them unto Himself as He is holding us. There is no doubt that we will face the complete rejection of this realm, that we will be the spat upon and the scorned of our earthly society, but that is not the concern of our beings. We hold onto the great promise declared in Rev 21:1-4, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away. "  
The lives that we are called to live are not our own. They are the expressed desire of God to bring forth His love on this earth. He so loves this world, that He places us into the midst of it to give expression to His great Grace and Forgiveness. That is only possible as the inhabitants see a difference in His church, the Body of Christ. We must look past the present sufferings in our life to the face of Jesus Christ and rely singly upon Him to see us through unto the revelation of His heart’s desire, His Perfect Bride. With that understanding in place, we are able to rejoice in our trials and tribulations. We are able to point others to Christ as the only salvation for all mankind. We are able to rely solely upon Christ, and seek His glory to be evidenced in our lives, no matter what the earthly cost, no matter what road that needs to be traveled. Our only strength is in Him. Our only understanding is that which brings forth Christ in every situation. Our only hope is in the miraculous love of God given to us in Our Lord Jesus Christ. His death on the cross and His glorious and everlasting resurrection are the completion of God’s expressed grace and His lavished love, freely given to all.  Amen
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.