1. Grace that Helps Us to Be Patient 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

3. How do we get rid of suffering in the world?

4. How do we deal with suffering and hardship when they do and certainly will happen again? patience n. the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

5. Grace that Helps Us to Be Patient (2 Cor 12:7-10) 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

6. Grace that Helps Us to Be Patient (2 Cor 12:7-10) 1)The presence of hardship in life (vv.7-8) 2)The source of Paul’s patience to endure hardship (v.9a) 3)The response of Paul toward hardship out of patience (vv.9b-10)

7. Grace that Helps Us to Be Patient (2 Cor 12:7-10) 1)The presence of hardship in life  Reason or no reason, hardship hurts!  “Why?” isn’t the answer.

9. Grace that Helps Us to Be Patient (2 Cor 12:7-10) 2)The source of Paul’s patience to endure hardship  Removal of the hardship isn’t the current solution.  The grace of God is the real solution.  God’s power is perfected in our weakness.  Joni Erickson Tada

10. Grace that Helps Us to Be Patient (2 Cor 12:7-10) 3)The response of Paul toward hardship out of patience  Joy, in spite of pain.  Boast not about ourselves, but God.

11. Grace that Helps Us to Be Patient (2 Cor 12:7-10) In a way I wish I could take to heaven my old, tattered Everest and Jennings wheelchair. I would point to the empty seat and say, “Lord, for decades I was paralyzed in this chair. But it showed me how paralyzed You must have felt to be nailed to Your Cross. My limitations taught me something about the limitations You endured when You laid aside your robes of state and put on the indignity of human flesh.” At that point, with my strong and glorified body, I might sit in it, rub the armrests with my hands, look up at Jesus, and add, “The weaker I felt in this chair, the harder I leaned on You. And the harder I leaned, the more I discovered how strong You are. Thank you, Jesus for learning obedience in your suffering...You gave me grace to learn obedience in mine.”

12. ` Grace that Helps Us to Be Patient 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

13. When peace like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know, It is well, it is well, with my soul. It is well, with my soul, It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul. “It Is Well with My Soul” Lyrics Horatio Spafford and Music Philip Bliss. Public Domain.

14. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul. It is well, with my soul, It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul. “It Is Well with My Soul” Lyrics Horatio Spafford and Music Philip Bliss. Public Domain.

15. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! It is well, with my soul, It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul. “It Is Well with My Soul” Lyrics Horatio Spafford and Music Philip Bliss. Public Domain.

16. For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live: If Jordan above me shall roll, No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life, Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul. It is well, with my soul, It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul. “It Is Well with My Soul” Lyrics Horatio Spafford and Music Philip Bliss. Public Domain.

17. But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait, The sky, not the grave, is our goal; Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord! Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul. It is well, with my soul, It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul. “It Is Well with My Soul” Lyrics Horatio Spafford and Music Philip Bliss. Public Domain.

18. And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll; The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, Even so, it is well with my soul It is well, with my soul, It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul. “It Is Well with My Soul” Lyrics Horatio Spafford and Music Philip Bliss. Public Domain.