Daily Impact: 22nd August 2023
Topic: The Answer
Text: 2 Corinthians 12:7-9
Every prayer or intercession aims to get an answer. Joseph told Pharaoh, he said the Lord himself will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Everybody wants answers to his prayers. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing, I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:7-9.
God answers by strengthening. He answers by giving you the grace to endure whatever challenge or situation you are going through. God gives strength and strengthens you to continue in that situation. In this passage, Paul told us there is no problem that God allows in the life of a man that does not have a reason. There is no challenge a man faces that does not have a purpose. Everything in life serves God’s purpose, including your pain, ailment, challenge, and what the enemy may be doing. God allows some things sometimes to toughen you, to build up spiritual stamina in you. He allows challenges sometimes to increase your faith. In this passage, because of the very many revelations given to Paul the apostle, God allowed that thorn in his flesh so that he will not be exalted beyond measure.
And Paul said this thorn was a messenger of Satan. And then he said, I sought the face of the Lord. Paul said I asked God for his interventions and answers. I ask God for healing. I ask that this problem, this messenger of Satan, be dealt with with absolute finality in my life. Paul said God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect. In your weakness. So God is saying, I am not going to eliminate this challenge. My strength is revealed in your weakness and therefore would want you to continue like that. Look at Paul. Paul understood the purpose of the challenge or the trouble in his life. He knew it was because God wanted him to remain humble in the face of the many revelations that God has given to him. In verse number seven, Paul said twice, lest I should be exalted above measures. And again, towards the close of that verse, he said, lest I be exalted above measures. So Paul understood the reason why God allowed the challenge in his life.
When you pray sometimes for a change in a particular situation, what God does is to give you the strength, the grace to continue and to go through that situation. He does not want to abort the process for your maturity. He wants you to go through that challenge. He does not want to end abruptly the process that will strengthen you in him and the faith. He wants you to go through it. God gives you the strength to continue. May strength from heaven be available to you in all situations of life in the name of Jesus. Isaiah said, He said he giveth power to the faint and those that are without might, he increases strength. So giving strength to his people is one way God answers prayers. He gives you the strength to continue. He gives you the strength to overcome the challenges, and temptations of life. He gave Elijah the strength to continue on his journey for 40 days until he got to the mountain of God. So God strengthens us when we pray. You may wish to call this strengthening grace.
God engraces you. He gives you the grace to go through that problem. He gives you the grace to go through that loss. He gives you the grace to endure that pain, Grace or strength to hold on, Grace or strength not to compromise. Strength to press on stamina to move on. This is one way that God answers prayers. He energizes his people. He strengthens his people. He empowers them. He engraces them to press on. To move on to endure so they could arrive at the place that he has destined for them. God has destined a great and glorious place for you. And so it gives you the strength to go through whatever you meet along the way.
Romans 8:35, Paul wrote and he said, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. In verse 38, he said I’m persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Despite all this that Paul enumerated, he was simply saying, the Lord has strengthened me to overcome all of this. To press on despite all these challenges and distresses and troubles and principalities and powers and persecution and farming and nakedness and peril and what have you, may the Lord strengthen you to press on and get to the place that he has destined for you despite the challenges or the adversities of life.
Prayer Focus
1. Father, strengthen me to press on in the journey of life. Strengthen me to continue in the faith. Strengthen me not to look back or to give up, in the name of Jesus.
2. I pray that in my weakness, you will reveal your strength. In the name of Jesus. Let the strength of you, the living God, be made known, be made manifest in my weakness, and let your name be glorified.
3. Father, I receive the strength, I receive the stamina, I receive the grace to get to the place that you have destined for me in the name of Jesus. Not to look back, not to give up, not to be detached in the face of challenges and difficult situations and circumstances of life.
4. I overcome every challenge, I subdue every enemy, and I cross every hurdle along my path to destiny in the name of Jesus. Every challenge, every problem, on my way to victory, to greatness, I overcome. I win, I conquer by the strength of the Almighty, in the name of Jesus
