God’s Word speaks to each of us in different ways. Through particular verses God provides the impetus to change our direction in life for the long term, and sometimes God gives us just the right verses to impact specific seasons in our lives. Over the next few weeks, we thought we would share with you a few of our favorite verses. In a devotional series we’re calling A Few of Our Favorite Things, you’ll hear from some of our pastors and volunteers as they share how God’s Word has impacted them.
Read 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NIV
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
I adopted these verses as my life verses 24 years ago when I was diagnosed with MS and was struggling to learn to live with it on a daily basis.
Our son Jacob being born with disabilities was unexpected and seemed devastating, but with God’s grace David and I were coping with it together. The subsequent MS diagnosis (and later being diagnosed twice with cancer within 6 months) just put me (and David) over the top. The diagnosis came one year after David had taken the Palmyra church plant calling. I had assumed I would be working at my own job so much that my time would be limited in the help I could give him. Little did I know how that diagnosis would change everything!
We definitely have come to believe that what others would have described as “hardships” were really moments when God revealed His power at work in our lives. God has accomplished so much in us and through us, and our marriage is thriving because God has allowed His glory to shine through our weaknesses, hardships, persecutions and difficulties!
We are stronger now than we could ever hope to have been with the life we have lived. I wouldn’t change one thing!
Linda Prince
Friendship Director
