Mockingbird
New member
A good friend brought this cripture to my attention recently. I never really noticed it before, but it really is an excellent scripture, and I thought I'd share it. <div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>To keep me from being conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to toment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10</end quote></div>
I know for all of us on this site, a huge thorn is cystic fibrosis, whether we have it ourselves or we have loved ones with it. I am sometimes asked how I am able to keep my faith in God when I am faced with this illness. It was really only within this past year that I realized it is not in spite of cystic fibrosis, but because of it. As one of my favorite scriptures says, <div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>We do not want you to be misinformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ablility to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9</end quote></div>
My weakness makes me humble, and it is because of it I realize I cannot be the heroes which I see in the movies and on TV, nor can I be the great philosopher with sufficient wisdom and knowledge so as to bring peace and happiness to the Earth. Indeed, on my own, I cannot bring peace and happiness to my own self, nor save my own life, so how could I possibly do those things for anyone else? It is only through God we can do these things and so much more.
There was a time when I believed my success lie in defeating CF, in fighting it with every core of my being. Even then I knew I could not defeat it, but I believed by fighting hard enough I could somehow prove myself, or something. In this past year however, I have come to see that by struggling with CF I was struggling against God. It is not His will I should defeat my CF, for he most likely has much more important things planned for me; things that involve not this world, but the next. By accepting CF, by subbmitting to His will, He lends me His strength, and only then am I able to move mountains!
Anyway, this is just what I have been learning lately, and I have found it very powerful. Perhaps not everyone will find it as powerful as I do, but I hope so.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10</end quote></div>
I know for all of us on this site, a huge thorn is cystic fibrosis, whether we have it ourselves or we have loved ones with it. I am sometimes asked how I am able to keep my faith in God when I am faced with this illness. It was really only within this past year that I realized it is not in spite of cystic fibrosis, but because of it. As one of my favorite scriptures says, <div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>We do not want you to be misinformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ablility to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9</end quote></div>
My weakness makes me humble, and it is because of it I realize I cannot be the heroes which I see in the movies and on TV, nor can I be the great philosopher with sufficient wisdom and knowledge so as to bring peace and happiness to the Earth. Indeed, on my own, I cannot bring peace and happiness to my own self, nor save my own life, so how could I possibly do those things for anyone else? It is only through God we can do these things and so much more.
There was a time when I believed my success lie in defeating CF, in fighting it with every core of my being. Even then I knew I could not defeat it, but I believed by fighting hard enough I could somehow prove myself, or something. In this past year however, I have come to see that by struggling with CF I was struggling against God. It is not His will I should defeat my CF, for he most likely has much more important things planned for me; things that involve not this world, but the next. By accepting CF, by subbmitting to His will, He lends me His strength, and only then am I able to move mountains!
Anyway, this is just what I have been learning lately, and I have found it very powerful. Perhaps not everyone will find it as powerful as I do, but I hope so.