Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
WEDNESDAY, June 10 (Ephrem of Edessa)
2 Corinthians 11:21b-33. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
In seventh grade, I wrote of a "superiority complex," to be told that there was no such thing. Well, teachers don't know everything. Straight A's had given me one. An arsenal of defense mechanisms hid my weaknesses, at least from me. Boast of my weaknesses? Is Paul crazy?
But defense mechanisms are the heart's armor, the rock through which we cannot hear God speaking.
Remember the Pharisees? The Pharisees had superiority complexes. And in their superiority they could not accept Jesus because they were self-sufficient. To them Jesus said (in Matthew 9:13), "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."
Jesus died not for our strengths, but for our weaknesses. And it is the sacrificial death of Jesus that is our letter of introduction to the throne of God.
Our weaknesses are our treasure. Hunt for them. Boast of them. Love them. Offer them humbly to Jesus. For it is only in our weakness that we are covered by Jesus' sacrifice. It is only in our weakness that God can use us, and it is only in our weakness that we can hear God speaking in our hearts.
PRAY for the Diocese of Northwest Texas (Province VII, U.S.)
Ps 72 * 119:73-96; Deuteronomy 31:30-32:14; Luke 19:11-27
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