Daily Devotion - October 20, 2023

He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Cor. 12:9)

Author Roy Atwood writes, “My father’s illusions of independence and self-sufficiency were shattered” when he fell off the roof of his home while repairing the gutters … during a rainstorm. Landing on the corner of a concrete sidewalk, he broke his spine. The fall almost killed him and in a split second, “his pride and dreams” …were gone forever. 

Atwood goes on to describe how his father’s state of almost complete dependency turned his heart to Christ’s sufficiency. The change was dramatic: anger was replaced with joy; bitterness by tenderness; and, lifelong hardness with a gentleness of spirit. 

Atwood concludes that his father’s last years were his best, and the legacy that he will leave to his children’s children will be of the transforming work of Jesus. That transforming work always occurs when we come to the end of ourselves and discover the God of grace is waiting to heal our heart today and to prepare for our eternity without any more suffering of body or soul. 

If you have come to the end of yourself, it’s time to pray “that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Confess your weakness and Christ’s transforming power will come upon you.

Prayer: Lord, help me to embrace the sufficiency of your grace when my inability overwhelms my spirit. Remind me that when I come to the end of myself, Jesus is there waiting.