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Revealing the Life of Jesus through Our Limits and Weakness: Praying through 2 Cor. 4:7-10

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

     Dear Lord Jesus, to have you plus nothing, makes me as rich as anybody in the history of the universe. To have you plus everything wouldn’t make me any richer than he who has you alone. You are the treasure all other currencies mimic and counterfeit. Nothing compares to the excellency of being loved by you and knowing you.

     You inhabit my weakness like an original Rembrandt painting in a picture frame of straw; or like the Hope Diamond mounted in a necklace of tin foil and Scotch Tape. You get all the attention and honor, and I get the supreme privilege of simply being used of you. Just as it should be, and just as I want it to be.

8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

     Unlike Paul, I haven’t been in a season of persecution, but I totally relate to his images of being hard pressed and perplexed, and I’ll throw in frazzled, head-spinning busy, and primed for Sabbath rest, renewal, and refreshment. The stories, demands, and emotional expenditure of these past six weeks have taxed my limits and driven me to you—which is a good thing. In all of it, I’ve been keenly aware of your presence, shocked at the strength you’ve given me, and thankful for what I see you doing.

10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

     Jesus, I am fine—actually happy to do life accepting my limits and boasting in my weaknesses, as long as your life is revealed in me and through me. I don’t feel the need to be as competent as many of my gifted friends; but I do want to finish my life as a conduit of your beauty and love, mercy and grace. So very Amen I pray, in your tender and triumphant name.

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