“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9
If there’s anything you need to take away from this devotional on prayer, it is this: Take your burdens to the Lord. It doesn’t matter how painful the load or how pressured you feel, take your need to the Lord through the abiding work of Jesus Christ.
Take your burdens to the Lord.
Someone might say, “I’ve heard that all my life. Tell me something new.” Well, when it comes to the ministry and the discipline of prayer, it’s not something new that you and I need. What we need is as old as the answer Hannah sought thousands of years ago.
Hannah was so intense in her prayer that the priest Eli thought she was drunk. Just so you know, if you read the context of the Scripture, you’ll discover that Eli didn’t have a lot going for him as a father, but he was a man of God, and when Hannah told him what she was doing, he had the right word for her at the right time (1 Samuel 1:17).
Notice what had changed for Hannah. At this point, God had not changed her circumstances. But He had changed her countenance. She had sought the Lord in prayer and emptied her soul before Him, and she went away from the house of worship happy.
Whenever I preach on this subject, I remind the audience that I am not there to make false promises. A lot of preachers do that. They tell you that if you pray just right, God will come along and set everything just right. I don’t know what God is going to do in your case. God doesn’t share inside information with me. But I can tell you that He can lift your heart. He can take your weakness and supply His strength. God can do that because, as He told the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, His grace is sufficient. It’s enough to see you through.
He can take your weakness and supply His strength.
It’s true: Hannah prayed and got her son. Paul prayed about his “thorn in the flesh” three times and got God’s no when it came to taking the thorn away. But Paul also got God’s grace to bear it, and he said if that’s what it takes to get God’s power, let it be. Can you say that today? If you can, you’re at the graduate level in God’s school of prayer.
