How did God's grace sustain Paul through his hardships?
God told Paul His grace was sufficient after Paul petitioned the Lord three times to remove his affliction. God did not heal that painful, repulsive disease, but His grace carried Paul through shipwrecks, beatings, hunger, cold, and nakedness, proving God's strength is made perfect in weakness.
Les teaches that Paul besought the Lord three times for the affliction to depart, but God did not heal him of it. Instead, God said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” That grace carried Paul all the way through his ministry—shipwrecks, beatings, hunger, cold, nakedness—and yet God’s grace was always sufficient. Les explains that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness, so believers must rest on that same sufficiency regardless of what God may see fit to take them through, knowing He will be with them when they reach the other side. This is also why God chose not to use the great, wealthy, or kings of this world, but the commonplace, those who had nothing in their flesh to offer.