[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0408":3},"APRIL 8\r\nTherefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in\r\npersecutions, in distress for Christ's sake: for when I am weak then am I strong (2 Cor. 12.1 0).\r\nThe literal translation of this verse gives a startling emphasis to T it and makes it speak for itself with a force that we have\r\nprobably never realized. Here it is: \"Therefore I take pleasure in being without strength, in insults, in being pinched, in being\r\nchased about in being cooped up in a comer for Christ's sake; for when I am without strength, then am I dynamite.\"\r\nHere is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of\r\neverything in ourselves and in our circumstances. When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard\r\nsituation or bad treatment for we will recognize these things as\r\nthe very conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God\r\nand find in them a claim upon Him. -- A.B. Simpson.\r\nGeorge Matheson, the well-known blind preacher of Scotland who recently went to be with the Lord, said: \"My God, I have never\r\nthanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for\r\nmy roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have\r\nnever thought of my cross as itself a present glory.\r\n\"Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn.\r\nShow me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows.\"\r\nAlas for him who never sees\r\nThe stars shine through the cypress trees.",1783499792051]