"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

A friend sent me these verses the other day. She wrote that although she knew she has been strengthened through suffering the idea of finding "delight" in it is very hard. It brought to my mind James 1:2-3 which states, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance."

How can we "delight" and have "joy" in suffering? This seems to make no sense to us. The key is found in verse 9 of the 2 Corinthians passage. It is God's grace and power in taking us through these trials in which we are taking delight, not the circumstances themselves. None of us wakes up and says "Oh, joy! I get to suffer today." We don't call our friends and say, "Great news! God just brought another trial into my life!"

We rejoice because we feel His Presence as we suffer, not because we relish hardship. Our "delight" is not in our circumstances, but in His ability to bring us through them. With this in mind, we can take the attitude that each new trial is a new opportunity to trust Him and watch Him work. It is the joy of His Presence to help us persevere that we are to consider in order to be an over comer.