This morning our worship pastor, Melissa Kulynych, was our speaker. Below is an introduction to her sermon and the audio recording.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says, “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. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak then I am strong.”
Grace is defined as “unmerited favor or unearned blessings.” In my experience grace (especially in this most recent season of grief) has become a benchmark of God’s presence. I see the grace of God and am then keenly aware of His closeness. In these times of the deepest pain, I find God to be the closest. It wasn’t until recently that I experienced the emotion and heaviness of being unsure if I was going to be able to bear something as I felt the pain of it was too great to bear. I knew I didn’t have the strength to even feel the weight of the burden, let alone carry it. But then I was reading the Bible one day and this verse just jumped off the page at me. Psalm 68:19 says, “Blessed be the Lord who daily bears my burdens.” I hadn’t realized the possibility of Him taking on the weight of what I carried. I knew I could go to Him and talk about it, I knew I could pour my heart out to Him; but up to this point, I don’t believe I understood just how completely He would carry my burden for me. Because of His great love, because of his sacrifice this has now allowed me the opportunity to exchange my burdens so that He takes on Himself the heavy weight I am feeling, and I receive the lightness of His burden because his love has carried it all.