“And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn[a] was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
This is another one of my favorite verses in scripture. “My Grace is sufficient for you.” Yes, Lord, Your grace is enough!
“Why are you afraid? Do you think that I will not have enough omnipotence to support you? At that moment, my soul felt extraordinary strength, and all the adversities that could befall me in carrying out God’s will seemed as nothing to me.” Divine Mercy in my soul # 527
I know everything I e accomplished for God, great and small, has been by God’s Grace.
I had always been an introvert. So, imagine the laugh I had “with God” when I received results from my ‘Discovering your spiritual gifts” course shortly after diving back into the Church and my faith. The results from the ‘test’ came back telling me that my strongest gifts were evangelization, teaching and preaching. I looked up and chuckled, “who do You think I am?”
Now, eighteen years later, I guess God really did know what He was doing. Those results still linger in my mind because God had a plan and poured His great Grace into my soul and opened my heart and mouth “to proclaim His glory.”
Now, I find it very difficult to contain myself when the topic of God or faith comes up. And, honestly, I am always thinking of ways to steer the conversation in that direction.
Probably one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever received was from my wife to a friend of ours. They were talking after Mass while I talked to the priest about his homily. My wife had just mentioned that when we met, I was very shy. I turned to their conversation just in time to hear our friend ask, “wow, so what changed him?” My wife replied, “he met Jesus.”
How has God’s grace and mercy changed your life and how you act? Has ‘meeting Jesus’ made any big changes in who you are or how you act? Spend the day reflecting upon all the varied ways God and His Grace has changed you.