His Grace is Enough

And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

It is often far easier to take an inventory of the reasons not to do something, than to find the reason to do it. It is so easy to see our limitations, our difficulties and our challenges as evidence that the Lord can't do anything with us. As we count up all of the reasons "why not" we fall into one of the subtlest traps our three-fold enemy sets out for us: self-centeredness. If our eyes are found looking to ourselves, even to take account of our inability, our eyes are ultimately fixed upon us and our inability and not our Lord, who IS ABLE!

What would the Lord do through you this week? Who would you share the gospel with? Who would you call to comfort or encourage? What would you take part in if failure were not possible? If you know that you could never do this on your own, you are in just the right place to start! Paul penned these words only one chapter after listing off all of his qualifications, he defended himself for the sake of his message that was given to Him directly from the resurrected Christ. But before anyone could wonder if Paul was used of God because of his great qualifications, he gives them a clear illustration of the reality: God uses us in and through our weakness. If we think we can serve from our own strength, our own strength we will waste. The Lord is interested in working through those who know best that is it He and He alone who is doing the work.

Doulos

Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth with accords with godliness... Titus 1:1

In a quick study of Scripture we see that Paul describes himself this way repeatedly, as does Peter (2 Peter 1:1), James (James 1:1) as well as Jude (Jude 1:1). What is this title that they all use to describe themselves? In the New King James Version we have it brought across as "bondservant of God" but could just as well be brought across with the word "slave." When we think of slavery we think of the tragedy that occurred in our own country (and much of the rest of the world) that reached it's peak in the American Civil War. This however was not the context of slavery that Paul and the other New Testament writers lived in.

While many important observations could be made about the system of slavery in Rome, and the systems that occurred throughout the ancient world, I believe their is something directly from scripture that each of these men were thinking of when they described themselves as "slaves of God." Exodus 21:5-6 give us the most beautiful picture of slavery I know: "But if the servant plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,' then his master shall rbing him to the judges. He shall aslo bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever."

In this Old Testament picture we see a slave who is scheduled to be free (a clear difference between the slavery that we know about and the biblical system of slavery) but he loves his master, he loves the care that he has received, and he wants to be BONDED to that master for the rest of his life. This process was painful (the ear of the servant was pierced with an awl into the doorpost of the house) and the result was that person was forever bound to that household. This, I believe is the picture that Paul and the others had in their mind when they proclaimed themselves bondslaves of God.