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=> Email to Ray => Topic started by: Craig on October 18, 2009, 08:40:30 AM
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Brother Smith, what exactly does it mean when the Lord told the Apostly Paul that his grace was sufficient for him ?
Dear Reader: Paul explains in some detail what it meant that Jesus told him His grace was sufficient for Paul.
Paul had been given visions, spiritual understanding, the gift of healing and raising the dead, speaking in foreign
languages, etc. (read the entire twelfth chapter of II Cor.). But Paul has one big request of Jesus: he desires that
Jesus remove what he called "a thorn in the flesh" (see my paper on what that thorn was), which was a great
trouble and aggravation to Paul. Jesus declined Paul's request, and Paul knew why Jesus had declined his request.
II Cor. 12:7--"and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given
to me a thorn in the flesh..." In other words, Jesus told Paul that He had done quite enough (sufficient) for Paul
when it came to doing him favors--grace means "favor, gift, etc." Besides this trial of a thorn in the flesh kept
Paul weak, which kept him humble, which enabled Jesus to make him strong spiritually. And so Paul concluded
by stating: "...for when I am weak [having this thorn in the flesh] then I am strong" (Verse 10). Some of thee things
are a bit difficult to understand before one has his own "thorn in the flesh" which God does not immediately remove.
God be with you,
Ray