Trials are a match that torches my fallacy that I’m sufficient. I have zero ounces of sufficiency in myself. This reality is highlighted all the more when I’m in dire circumstances. I simply don’t have the spiritual strength to keep going when the Red Sea is before me and the Egyptians are behind me. It brings me to this particular verse.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

9 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. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

God could have delivered Paul and said to him, “My mighty deliverance is sufficient for you.” But He didn’t. Instead, He left Paul in his crippled state and said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

This verse captures something easily missed during hard times. We can occasionally misinterpret this verse to mean that God’s grace will draw us out of our difficulties and into greener pastures. But, God will not always remove the thorn from our side, but His grace will be sufficient for us regardless of the thorn. He chooses to display His power in us by sustaining us in our weakness. This grace is experienced when we reach the end of our ability and move into total dependence upon Him.

I think this is why Proverbs exhorts us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and not to lean on our own understanding. When I lean on my own understanding, I’m failing to trust God, whose power and ability to deliver are far beyond my understanding. When I trust in the sufficiency of God’s grace, I truly can be anxious for nothing. When God does intervene and rescues me, it becomes abundantly clear to me that it was not due to my magnificent strategizing, but His glorious, sufficient grace.

Paul explains in Philippians 4:11-13, that he has learned how to be content in any circumstance no matter how severe. When things are going well or when things are going badly, Paul knows that contentment doesn’t come from circumstances, it comes from recognizing that we can do whatever God intends for us to do through Christ who strengthens us. God is so gracious to provide strength when it is needed so that we can find our identity, our confidence, and our contentment in Him.

The solution to weakness is not a stiff upper lip. It’s to lean on God with all our weight, to throw ourselves on the one whose power is made perfect in our weakness. Then, and only then, are we strong.

Please pray for the Dorcas Women and Children's Fund; we are working on doing a mission trip to Kenya. I plan to visit an orphanage that has kids from the age of 6 and older. We will need finances to cover the budget for the food and clothes needed for that day. If you are led to donate, kindly do so. A little goes a long way.

We pray for you always, 

Adalia Hansen

As always, please continue to uphold us up in your prayers.  I need millions of people to join Eagles Saving Nations (ESN), so there can be a national repentance to save America.  If you don’t know the goals of ESN, see my web site at worldministries.org. Study it and then please join.  We always need more finances to expand the Kingdom of God.  We need additional staff, hopefully retired people that can volunteer their time etc.  Pray that God will give us millionaires to come on board to use their resources for Kingdom expansion.

As Adalia said, we are planning a mission trip in January and need a financial breakthrough to help women and children in desperate need there.  I am also meeting with leadership concerning the New World Order trying to take away the freedoms in every nation and destroy the church.

We love you so very much and you are a very important part of our ministry, so continue to pray so we can see breakthroughs.

Love, Jonathan Hansen