Prayer, Glorifying God Through Our Sufferings, and His Amazing Grace

Luke 18:1

"Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up." 

Prayer is something that should be constant in our lives and should be taken seriously.  My prayer life always needs work. I sometimes end up in a habit of saying a prayer like,"Lord, please help me and my family, Amen." That's not something the Lord wants to hear. He wants us to pray earnestly and from our heart. He wants us to unload our burdens and worries when we pray. And DO NOT GIVE UP ON GOD! He tells us not to. 

We are only defeated when we give up on God. 

God doesn't give up on us, so why should we give up on Him?

Corrie ten Boom wrote this,

"As a camel kneels before his master to have him remove his burden, so kneel before the Master to take your burden."

Concerning our burdens, this is a great reminder of God's grace. 

Matthew 11:28-30

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 

Another quote, but I am not sure who wrote this. (it is from my Bible study book)

"But this you must know,

This one thing you must know..

I cannot take your burdens,

Until you let them go." 

If we hold on to our burdens, God's is not going to lighten them. We must humble ourselves before the Lord, because sometimes we think we can handle the burdens and trials ourselves but no,we can't. Trust me, I've tried and it got me deeper into a mess. We must give ALL our burdens to the Lord. Great or small, give them all! 

The Old Thorn in the Flesh

Now sometimes the Lord chooses to leave us our trials, because He is preparing something great through them. He allows us to have that thorn in the flesh like Paul. Even when He allows trials, He is being glorified through our suffering. It is so hard for me to comprehend how God is glorified through my hard times and struggles, especially with anxiety. I wonder how my anxiety (which is not fully trusting in GOD and that He will deliver me from it) glorifies Him! How can distrust and fear (which is a sin) bring glory to God? 

Well, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says,

This is a promise that the Lord gives us:   "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I (disciples of Christ) will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." We can delight in all our circumstances! YAY!

Grace is Sufficient

How can we be strong when we are weak? Tuff question. I will answer it best I can. 

Well, when we are weak, God seems the strongest. So, we can be strong when we are weak because of God's grace. Like it says,"My grace is sufficient for you.." God's grace is enough. It doesn't matter how bad we feel, or how deep is our struggle. God's grace is enough, and we can be strong in our sufferings because of that.