Finding Contentment in God’s Sufficient Grace
Listen to Pastor Chuck Swindoll explain how Saul experienced supernatural contentment in the harshest circumstances.
Listen to Pastor Chuck Swindoll explain how Saul experienced supernatural contentment in the harshest circumstances.
Look beyond the tough stuff by remembering that God is working in and through all things—everything. He has a higher good in mind than just our temporal good.
Contentment is the unknown “X” in life’s equation. Face it. You and I are afraid that if we open the door of contentment, two uninvited guests will rush in: loss of prestige and laziness.
I have some good news for you: God’s goal is not to make sure you’re happy. No matter how hard it is for you to believe this, it’s time to do so.
Paul called his disability “a thorn in my flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7). The downside of this “thorn” was the awful torment it brought. The benefit was that it kept Paul from being self-sufficient. The pain he endured forced him away from self-serving pride and toward an all-important discovery: “When I am weak, then I am strong” (12:10).
God does His best work in you after you’ve exhausted your own strength. He doesn’t use “super-strong” people. He uses the inadequate and ill-equipped, “...for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Strength in weakness—sounds like an oxymoron. However, when you are weak it is possible to be strong, just as Paul says in 2 Corinthians.
Because of our sin nature our default mode is self-sufficiency and independence from God. Rather than allowing His power—the power of Christ’s Holy Spirit who lives in every believer—to replace our weakness, we naturally try to handle things on our own.
Training for endurance is not glamorous. No one notices you reading your Bible before work or espouses compliments over the worn-out spots in your carpet from knelt prayers.
Having a limitation does not necessarily mean a liability. Paul illustrates five attitudes required for transforming limitations into assets and living and leading victoriously.