Fifth Sunday Meditation: His Power Made Perfect

"...My grace, My favor and

loving-kindness and mercy is enough for you,

sufficient against any danger and enables you

to bear the trouble; for My strength and power

are made perfect in your weakness,"

II Corinthians 12:9

While in Europe researching my book,

"Of Whom The World Was Not Worthy"

(Bethany House 1979)

I traveled through Yugoslavia from Slovenia

to Macedonia. I interviewed factory workers,

peasants, gypsies, doctors, and laborers, as

well as former Communist party officials.

I wanted to know how Christians sustained 

their faith through the devastation of two world wars.

I heard story after story of courage in the face of

seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

I talked to those who had been imprisoned and whose

future seemed hopeless; people who had been sick and wasted

physically; frail women who fought in the Partisan army

against the Fascists with only sticks for weapons;

people who were starving, who ate scraps out of garbage cans.

These were brave people-weak, defenseless, people- but

those for whom the grace of the Lord was sufficient.

In their weakness, His power was made perfect.

Female partisans of the Prolaterian Brigade in 

Sutjeska,Yugoslavia during World War II.

I looked at my own life and asked myself if my weaknesses

were an opportunity for God's power to be made perfect in me.

Did I really accept His grace as sufficient for every situation?

The apostle Paul suffered a thorn in the flesh that he begged

the Lord to remove. The Lord responded not by removing the

agonizing source of pain but by giving the apostle the strength

to bear it. This is how God often works. He does not spare us

from suffering but enables us to conquer it.

I've seen shy people become great leaders, and I've seen physically

ill people become charged with spiritual energy and touch other

lives with the power of the gospel of Christ.

I've seen suffering people become shining examples of strength

and power. And through this I've learned that nothing can break

or destroy us when we allow our weaknesses to make us strong.

There is sublime joy in holy boasting of the power of God in

a life that is totally dependent on Him. There is a sublime peace

in accepting the sufficiency of God's grace by allowing Him to

be strong in us where we are weak.

Author Marie Chapian

"His Power Made Perfect"

By Marie Chapian

from the "Women's Devotional Bible"

 The Zondervan Corporation

(1990, 1991)