Strength For Today – Day 14

₃Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help comes! ₄He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God. ₅Just as we have a share in Christ's many sufferings, so also through Christ we share in God's great help.

₁₆For this reason we never become discouraged. Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. ₁₇And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. ₁₈For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts for ever.

₇But to keep me from being puffed up with pride because of the many wonderful things I saw, I was given a painful physical ailment, which acts as Satan's messenger to beat me and keep me from being proud. ₈Three times I prayed to the Lord about this and asked him to take it away. ₉But his answer was: “My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak.” I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ's power over me.