HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

The literal translation of this verse gives a startling emphasis to it, and makes it speak for itself with a force that we have probably never realized. Here It is: “Therefore I take pleasure in being without strength, in insults, in being pinched, in being chased about, in being cooped up in a corner for Christ’s sake; for when I am without strength, then am I dynamite.”

Some things have befallen us in the last two years and it seems like it will continue in the coming year 2022. I am speaking about the pandemic and each of us had our challenges. Many were broken and maybe still broken without a job, the loss of loved ones but I am seeing them as thorns. Yet we survived the trauma inflicted on us, but did you take the time to thank God for these thorns? Are you just thanking Him for life and all the good things around you? Remember to be thankful for everything that comes your way.

Here is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of everything in ourselves and in our circumstances. When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard situation or bad treatment, for we will recognize these things as the very conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God and find in them a claim upon Him.

So many of us in ministry have been in situations and some are still in the path of what we called hardships.  Here is how I am seeing it through the eyes of a blind preacher. “My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross, but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.

Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows. Can we identify with these words?

It is my prayer that as we enter the festive season of Christmas that we do not forget the words of our Lord. “In everything give thanks to the Lord”,