It’s said that suffering reveals your character. What if it also makes you stronger? Listen to Susie’s conversation with evangelist Clayton King. They talk about the power of adversity to reveal the depth of our faith.
Clayton feels God gave him a “glimpse” into Paul’s words when Paul claimed strength in weakness. Over the course of twelve years, Clayton lost nine family members including both parents. He was preaching one funeral every sixteen months, and it wore him down. It also exposed some wrong thinking.
“When I became a Christian, God began to break me of the assumption that strength is only manifested in successful ways. I realized God’s presence was actually most evident in my life in times of weakness. Control is an illusion and strength doesn’t come from inside of us, it comes from God alone.”
Clayton shares the lessons God brought him.
• Peace is not the absence of crisis, but Christ in our crisis.
• When we feel stuck, we need to keep moving forward in faith.
• We don’t have to feed every feeling. Just because we feel lonely, it doesn’t mean that God has left us.
• Pain has a way of purifying our motives and clarifying our calling.
• Faith replaces fear, but not without a fight. Fear has to be evicted and thrown out.
“If God chooses not to remove suffering in this life, He will remove it at our death. If He doesn’t grant us a removing now, He’s going to do a redeeming work now.”
Clayton draws a comparison between building up faith and building up muscle. When a trauma enters our life, our faith is shaken or torn. Over time, when we trust in God and preach to ourselves, our faith and heart will knit back together stronger than before. Clayton calls us to work our faith muscle and come back stronger.
Key Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Theme Song: Touch the Sky by Hillsong
Highlight : Building up by tearing down – the “muscle” analogy
