April 22, 2026:

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

(2 Corinthians 12.9a-10)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

What makes us truly strong? What allows us to have such tenacity in faith that we can stand against the giants who confront us and our God? What empowers us to soldier through the waves upon waves of attacks against our character, our beliefs, our salvation and the choice to take up the cross of Christ as our own to bear the consequences of being one of the people of God? In the beginning of The Letter to the Romans, Paul wrote, “For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities (His eternal power and divine nature) have been clearly seen being understood as existing apart from what was made in order that people are without excuse.” It is these qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, that truly make us strong. These are not qualities we are born with ourselves. It is here that Jesus is like us but so unlike us as His nature is both human and divine. The sooner we come to terms with this, the more able we are to being our transformation into being the mighty ones of God. That transformation comes by having faith in the God who has faith in us. We pursue that transformation daily seeking to walk more and more as Jesus walked during His time on earth. Remembering from yesterday, our “weakness” is not necessarily a lack of strength or ability. Rather, our “weakness” is our confession that we are only a little less than the angels (as David sang in Psalm 8) because that is how God made us and them. Without His creative power and blessing, we would be no more than a sketch on the artisan’s table and dust not yet turned to clay. But when we recognize our place before and with God, and that we are not equal to God (as Satan refuses to declare for himself), then the presumed weakness becomes a strength. We capture the leading of the Holy Spirit to become more and more of who we are in His image until we, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, “finally seek face to face as we have always been seen.”

You and I hear athletes, media stars, leaders of nations and industries give thanks to God for their abilities to rise to success capitalizing on their strengths and assets to gain a venue to speak of God’s blessing on them allowing to be, as the world has now grown accustomed to declaring which I loathe personally and theologically, a “G.O.A.T.” or “The Greatest Of All Time.” They boast of strength, ability, opportunity and the commitment of others to help them be all they can be. Paul, on the other hand, speaks of boasting of his weakness meaning his dependency on God for everything including “thorns in the flesh,” or antagonizers and physical ailments such malaria and crippling arthritis; false judgments leading to imprisonment and acts of nature which became great challenges on resources. He did not give credence to the enemy but accepted them all as part of his maturing in faith toward God. He knew that God could work all things and all people and all situations and make something good come out of it. God is the optimal positive thinker! Paul did not boast of strengths except that which he knew would not exist if not for God.

What makes us strong? Our faith in God and our persistence to trust in Him as did Jesus His Son and our Savior.

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.