Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit (Great Lives from God's Word)

by Charles R. Swindoll

It is not always God’s will that you be healed. It is not always the Father’s plan to relieve the pressure. Our happiness is not God’s chief aim. He doesn’t have a wonderful (meaning “comfortable”) plan for everybody’s life—not from a human perspective. Often His plan is nowhere near wonderful. As with Saul, His answer is not what we prayed and hoped for. But, remembering that He is forming us more and more into the image of His Son, it helps us understand His answer is based on His long-range plan, not our immediate relief.

His grace supplies more than we need to endure whatever it is that threatens to undo us. Let me amplify that thought. His grace is more sufficient than your strength. His grace is more sufficient than the advice of any trained counselor or close friend (though God uses both). His grace is sufficient to carry you through whatever your own, unique “thorn” may be. His grace—that’s the ticket.

Would you like to know why? “Because power is perfected in weakness.” What an amazing statement from the Lord!

I need to underscore a foundational fact: God’s goal is not to make sure you’re happy. No matter how hard it is for you to believe this, it’s time to do so. Life is not about your being comfortable and happy and successful and pain free. It is about becoming the man or woman God has called you to be.

Life is not about you! It’s about God.

But when we boast in what He is doing in the midst of our brokenness, inability and inadequacy, Christ comes to the front. His strength comes to our rescue.

The very things we dread and run from in our lives are precisely what brought contentment to Saul.

“Because when I am weak then I’m strong.” Knowing that brought the apostle, ablaze with the flaming oracles of heaven, to his knees. What a way to live your life—content in everything—knowing that divine strength comes when human weakness is evident. That’s what gave the man of grace true grit. It will do the same for us.

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First, remember that suffering is not new.

He wanted her to realize that God is not a heavenly bellboy, delivering only pleasurable and comforting things to our door. He doesn’t exist to make us happy. We exist to bring Him glory.

It is easy to be confused in one’s understanding of God. But He has not changed. His ways have not been altered.

As with Job and Saul, He continues to allow suffering to mold us into humble, useful servants.

Resist the temptation to rethink God just because hard times come. Look deeper. Cling to Him tighter. Refuse to question His motives. He’s doing something great within you. Suffering is nothing new.

Second, realize that suffering plays a beneficial role.

Realize that, even in the injustice of it all, the suffering you endure can ultimately turn to your benefit. God is working. Only He knows the end from the beginning, and He knows you and your needs far better than even you do. Don’t ask, “Why is this happening to me?” Rather, ask the question, “How should I respond?” Otherwise, you’ll miss the beneficial role suffering plays in life.

Third, release the idea that contentment requires comfort.

Paul wrote, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11–13).

God’s best deliveries come through the back door. His gifts are best received when we need them most, and they always

come in an understated manner, wrapped in mercy, framed with this tender inscription: “My grace is sufficient for you.”

My desire is for you and me, together, to claim grace and cultivate grit in the midst of our suffering—like Job, like Saul. And in the process to wean ourselves from the rabid pursuit of happiness so prevalent in our culture. Happiness is a byproduct of contentment. Once Saul discovered that, he lived it. I’m not fully there yet. Most likely, neither are you. And so, we press on together, growing and learning, reminding ourselves that He must increase, we must decrease. Remember, it’s all about Him, not us.

Jesus set the rule when he sent his disciples out to minister in pairs (Mark 6:7). His strategy never included sending out lone apostles to do the work of ministry. They went one with the other, and they served more effectively as a result.

All of us need help. And the greater the task, the more help we need. Strange and unwholesome things happen to those who fail to stay close to others.

Together they would prove a powerful force in the establishment of the Antioch church. In fact, I believe that explains Luke’s words at the end of verse 25, where he writes, “and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”

I find nothing more attractive in a gifted and competent leader than authentic humility. Saul’s giftedness was framed in the crucible of solitude where he had been honed and retooled by the living Christ.

I love Warren Wiersbe’s succinct definition of ministry: “Ministry takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory of God.”3

Why did Saul and Barnabas experience such pleasure in serving together? No competition. No battle of egos. No one threatened by the other’s gifts. No hidden agendas. No unresolved conflicts. Their single-minded goal was to magnify Christ.

TIMELESS ESSENTIALS FOR MINISTERING TOGETHER In every ministry there are at least three essentials that produce an atmosphere of joyous cooperation. They are objectives, people, and places.

First, whatever God plans, He pursues.

That has to do with the ministry essential of objectives.

God’s work has nothing to do with your pastor’s personal agenda. It is not about a church board’s five-step plan to reach the community, or the personal preferences of one outspoken deacon. It’s about what God wants to accomplish through each of us working together. The secret is in that last word—together.

God’s plan unfolds in ways that confounds human wisdom and sometimes defies common sense. But it is His plan. Objectives are essential when they are His objectives, not ours.

Second, whomever God chooses, He uses.

That has to do with the ministry essent...

The Scriptures urge us over and over to walk in purity and holiness. But we are to understand that even though God chooses to use us, our imperfections don’t go away.

This prompts me to offer a practical warning: If you fix your hopes and attentions on any one person you will be brokenhearted.

Like Saul and Barnabas let’s keep the focus on Christ. You have every right to expect that kind of Christ-centered focus from the leaders in your church.

Third, where ever God selects, He sends.

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God’s plan, however, includes removing some very gifted people among us and sending them elsewhere. We’ll look at that in the next chapter. His ways are not our ways.

What matters is this:

God sends people of His choosing to places of His choosing. The sooner we accept and embrace that truth, ...

He rigged the world in such a way that it only works when we embrace risk as the theme of our lives, which is to say, only when we live by faith. A man just won’t be happy until he’s got adventure in his work, in his love and in his spiritual life.

Here’s my message for you in one simple statement: Don’t try to manage it all alone. The Christian life is a team effort. God has designed it that way. Let’s cooperate.

For me, one word best characterizes the essence of obedience: