Our Daily Bread June 24
Sharing Your Faith / By: Amy Boucher Pye My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Corinthians 12:5–10
1 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 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. 10 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.
When author and evangelist Becky Pippert lived in Ireland, she longed to share the good news of Jesus with Heather, who’d done her nails for two years. But Heather hadn’t seemed remotely interested. Feeling unable to start a conversation, Becky prayed before her appointment.
While Heather worked on her nails, Becky flipped through an old magazine and paused at a picture of one of the models. When Heather asked why she was so riveted, Becky told her the photograph was of a close friend who’d years before been a Vogue cover model. Becky shared some of her friend’s story of coming to faith in God, which Heather listened to with rapt attention.
Becky left for a trip, and later when she returned to Ireland, she learned that Heather had moved to a new location. Becky reflected, “I had asked God to provide an opportunity to share the gospel, and He did!”
Becky looked to God for help in her weakness, inspired by the apostle Paul. When Paul was weak and pleaded with God to remove the thorn in his flesh, the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul had learned to rely on God in all things—the big and the small.
When we depend on God to help us love those around us, we too will find opportunities to share our faith authentically.
Today’s Hymns:
Let there be love shared among us
Pass it On-It only take a spark
Scripture and Respond:
Romans 10:13-15
13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”[a]
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[b]
Matthew 24:14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Reflection:
Have you ever shared your faith with others by relying on God’s help? Who do you want to know God? How are you going to pray for him today? Will you boldly share with him what God has accomplished in you?
Prayer:
Loving Jesus, You work through my weaknesses to bring glory to Your Father. Move in my life today, that I might share Your good news of grace.
Wong Wai Tung (Chief executive officer of The Great Wall Education Foundation) & Sam Chow (Administrative officer of The Great Wall Education Foundation) Reflection and Prayer translated by Jenny Hung
