2 Corinthians 12:9-10

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

From Background Notes [BN] for October 27^th & 28^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Frankly, the whole idea that weakness somehow was good upended Paul’s culture where things like weakness and poverty were signs of God’s disfavor and people’s dishonor.

Honestly, nobody likes being poor or weak. Our own culture regularly advertizes products designed to fix both of those problems. The message is pretty consistent: “Your body is a problem that our technology can solve” — just listen to the commercials for the drug companies. Paul took a far different position: “Your body is a mystery to be lived with” — he tells us through these texts. Our poverty and our weaknesses, far from being limitations, are signs of the cross at work in our lives. Jesus died in poverty and weakness, but was raised in power (see 1 Corinthians 15:43). Paul saw such limitations as openings to the limitless grace of God, cracks in the human body armor, allowing in the Spirit of God the ever-increasing source of our life and of our riches. “The Spirit helps us” through the gift of prayer without words, supplying utterance through “groans that words cannot be utter.” Even our words manifest as poverty — we can’t find any good ones for our prayers! So, in place of our words, come the groans of the Spirit. The word “groans” comes from the Greek stenagmos meaning “sighing, groaning, or moaning,” and belongs to a collection of similar terms, all of which have to do with mourning or grief. But whose groans are these? Paul would have us believe that the Spirit is the one who enters into our weakness so deeply that he sufferings along with us — he groans — and then brings that suffering to God through an act of “intercession” — he prays to the Father for us.  [BN, 7]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am