Joel M Bradshaw

30If I must boast, I [Paul] will boast of the things that show my weakness.–2 Corinthians 11

1. During this time, various men were traveling around claiming to be somebody better than Paul. They considered themselves not merely apostles, but super-apostles. They accompanied their work with great boastings.
2. These other guys were making boasts according to the flesh. When we do this, we make ourselves look good. I don’t like listening to speakers or preachers who are always the heroes of their own stories.
3. Paul took some time talking about the things that had been done to him. The beatings, the sleepless nights, constant danger, constant anxiety. His boastings had the effect of presenting him not as the hero.
4. During Paul’s weakness, God was strong. During Paul’s troubles, God protected. During Paul’s times of worry, God provided.
5. One of my favorite brags about God is that during an early season of my MS when I had no health insurance, God provided for me. I was in seminary and making almost no money. I was living a state away from my family and had my first apartment.
6. During that season, God provided. My thousand dollar monthly medication was heavily discounted, and a hospital wrote off an expensive MRI. And I remember being healthy during that season. I had no MS flareups.
7. I was vulnerable and making little money as a youth pastor and a seminary student. God quieted my disease then and brought me through a difficult season. I boast in the God who cares for me during my weakness. My boasts are to proclaim God’s strength, not mine. That was Paul’s story, too. Is it yours?–JMB