“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’”
2 Corinthians 12:9a
As he penned “Amazing Grace,” John Newton grasped this verse deeply, writing:
“I labor under a complication of disorders, summed up in the word sin. [God] has graciously revealed Himself to me as the infallible Physician and has enabled me … to commit myself to Him and expect my cure from His hand alone. Yet how often, instead of thankfully accepting His prescriptions, have I foolishly and presumptuously ventured to prescribe to Him, and to point out how I would have Him deal with me! How often have I thought something was necessary which He saw best to deny, and that I could have done better without those prescriptions which His wisdom appointed for my good!
“He is God and not man, or else He would have … left me to my own management long ago. How inconsistent! To acknowledge that I am blind, to entreat Him to lead me, and yet to want to choose my own way, in the same breath! I have limited the Holy One of Israel and not considered that He magnifies His wisdom and grace in working by contraries, bringing good out of seeming evil.”
“I labor under a complication of disorders, summed up in the word sin. [God] has graciously revealed Himself to me as the infallible Physician and has enabled me … to commit myself to Him and expect my cure from His hand alone. Yet how often, instead of thankfully accepting His prescriptions, have I foolishly and presumptuously ventured to prescribe to Him, and to point out how I would have Him deal with me! How often have I thought something was necessary which He saw best to deny, and that I could have done better without those prescriptions which His wisdom appointed for my good!
“He is God and not man, or else He would have … left me to my own management long ago. How inconsistent! To acknowledge that I am blind, to entreat Him to lead me, and yet to want to choose my own way, in the same breath! I have limited the Holy One of Israel and not considered that He magnifies His wisdom and grace in working by contraries, bringing good out of seeming evil.”
Scripture Focus
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Insight
“The cross on which the Savior died,/ And conquered for His saints;/ This is the tree, by faith applied,/ Which sweetens all complaints.” (John Newton, 1779)
Bible In A Year
- Song of Solomon 1-2
- Psalm 69
- John 9
