Title: When You're Weak, You're Strong
Contents
You are strong when you are weak
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
1. The big one is changed to the little one.
He was originally a Jew and as a Roman citizen he had two names. In Jewish it was Saul, in Greek it was Paul. Saul means “great” and Paul means “little one”. Before meeting Jesus, he lived proudly of himself. He was proud of being a Roman citizen, learning a lot under Gamaliel, and having the tradition of the tribe of Benjamin as a Jew, and lived in pursuit of greater power, power, and influence. His life toward the greater was destructive and unhappy. However, after the experience of Jesus, he considered the big things he was proud of before like excrement and lived as the little ones. As a forgiven sinner, he lived a humble and gentle life toward anyone. As a small fellow with Jesus Christ, he lived proudly of God's power, which is strongly revealed through his weakness, not his great power. In Christ, all people cherish the weak and the little things. Because God's greatness is revealed through my smallness.
2. Changed from an introvert to an extrovert.
After the experience of Jesus, the direction of his life changed. Like many forefathers of faith, Paul abandoned his self-centered attitude and lived a life of God-centered and Word-centered obedience, broadening his horizons and living by a vision to show the love of Christ worldwide. Living an introverted life narrows the scope of the person's thinking, escalates conflicts with neighbors, and prevents them from developing their abilities. But living an extrovert is what brings us to good change.
3. Changed from complaining to gratitude.
The apostle Paul changed from a life of complaining to a life of gratitude. Before the experience of Jesus, he had many conditions of gratitude by nature, but he was not thankful. However, in Jesus, Paul is confessing with gratitude his physical problem, which is so severe that he calls it Satan's thorn. I am thankful for the tremendous suffering I experienced as a missionary as a trace of Christ. In Jesus, he is no longer slandering others, but has been transformed into a person of blessing.
How could this be possible? It was because the experience of Jesus Christ that had happened to him was so clear. When he fell blind on the road to Damascus, he was treated as a brother by Ananias, and through this, he experienced the love of Christ deeply and practically. Because of this, Paul became a Christian who was not bound by the world and a man of grace who lived in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus Experience! Love experience! Forgiveness Experience!
We can start from there.