Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV  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.    This is a counterintuitive verse. We might assume that we can only be content when the sun is shining and our lives feel okay. The Apostle Paul insists that it's possible to be content even in difficult circumstances. I need to clarify that Paul wasn't content with these hard things for their own sakes. He wasn't a sadist. Instead he was grateful for an opportunity for God to display his strength in Paul's weakness. We might assume that when we face things like insults and persecution that we might just throw in the towel. Paul knew however that such things were causing him to rely consciously on God instead of himself. 'Blessed are the persecuted, for great is their reward in heaven'. Weaknesses, hardships and calamities can either drive us from God in bitterness, or to him in dependence...

 Luke 1:46-47 ESV  And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour   Mary knew the meaning of life. Mary knew that our purpose is to magnify the Lord and to rejoice in God our Saviour. She fulfilled her purpose in life. In one sense, Mary was never more than a humble peasant woman. At the same time she had the immense priviledge of bearing the Son of God in her womb as the virgin born and conceived of the Holy Spirit. Magnification of the Lord and rejoicing in her Saviour meant for Mary to bring him up into his Divine destiny! For us, magnification of God and rejoicing in him, our Saviour doesn't require us to say 'hail Mary', but hail Jesus. Mary needed a Saviour. We certainly do. Mary had the horror of witnessing her Son's crucifixion. Yet she came to understand that he died to save her as well. She was a matriarch in the early church, not because anyone 'hailed' her, but because she knew the meaning of life: to magnify and...