What did God say to Paul about grace and weakness?
God told Paul that His grace was sufficient for him, and that His strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul's affliction and perceived weakness did not disqualify him; God said that was when He could use him, just as He used Moses after years in obscurity.
Les explains that Paul, afflicted in the flesh, must have asked the Lord how people could stand to look at him or how he could stand up and preach looking so awful. God's answer was, "Paul, that's when I can use you." Les compares this to Moses, who spent forty years on the backside of the desert with sheep—animals that don't smell good—and shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. Moses saw himself as nothing but an abomination, and then God said, "Okay, Moses, now we're ready." Paul would have liked to be handsome like King Saul, but he wasn't. Yet God told him, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." So it was in that weakness and affliction that Paul thought he was unfit for pagan, sophisticated people.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.