For My Sake

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. 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.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)

I was ten years old. My dad had asked me to do something I did not want to do. I had come to learn by this time that what my father told me to do was what I did. No questions asked. But this time he threw me a curve ball. He hadn’t told me to do it; he had asked me to do it. And he was going to give me some time to agree or disagree with what he was asking.

I felt smug inside. I knew I was justified in my saying no to what he wanted me to do. I thought of all the legitimate reasons why I was not going to acquiesce to his wishes. A few hours later, I marched into the room where he was and spoke my piece. I thought I presented my side brilliantly. Besides, what he was asking me to do was beyond what I felt I was capable of. I confidently shared my heart and just knew that he would be won over by my careful and sound reasons for telling him I would not be doing what he had asked me to do.

He was quiet the entire time I was placing my brilliant argument before him. Then he said six words that shattered my whole defense.

“Will you do it for me?”

Girlfriends, this life with Jesus is hard–just plain, stinking hard sometimes. There have been times when I know I have every human reason to not cooperate with Him. The wrong has been done to me. I can think of a million reasons why I can withhold forgiveness or hang on to my bitterness. And then I hear Him quietly remind me:

“Shawn, how many times have I forgiven you? Do I hold against you what you have done against Me? How many times have you wronged Me?”

And I have stomped my foot as my well-thought-out arguments have crumpled to the floor around me. In the midst of my fuming, crying tantrum, I have heard Him quietly ask me:

“Will you do it for Me?”

Will I do it for the One who has saved me from hell and the wrath of God that I deserve? Will I do it for the One whose mercies to me are new every morning, even when I have sinned appallingly against Him the day before? Will I do it for the One who has promised me that the riches of heaven are mine? Will I do it for the One who not only asks me to forgive but gives me the grace to be able to do it? Will I do it for the One whose thoughts toward me are greater than the sands on the seashore?

Yes, Jesus. Yes. I cannot find the strength to obey You in myself, but through the grace You have given which triumphs over my weakness, I can always do it for You. I have been forgiven much. Let me love much. Not for the sake of others, but for Your sake.