The Grand Canyon is one of the best tourist courses in the United States. In addition to the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, and Black Canyon are also among the most beautiful places for tours. After seeing such a wonderful sight, people’s thoughts and feelings often are, “Wow, that’s great! How could it be so spectacular? How was this made?” We Christians have no choice but to praise God who made all wonderfully.

Another lesson comes to mind when looking at the canyons of cliffs that are drop down seemingly endlessly. Even if you asked someone to sculpt those beautiful canyons, such delicate work couldn’t be done by humans. This is similar to how our great God has personalized us into His masterpieces.

It took an enormous amount of time before incredible gorges like the ones in the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon could be created. And in that time, through the weathering of strong water and harsh winds, the rock’s weakest parts were cut off and the strongest parts of the rock remained. Because of that, now we can admire the greatness of nature while looking at the beautiful monuments.

Likewise, we humans have strengths and weaknesses. Our weaknesses sometimes lead us to experience frustration and failure. “If I didn’t have this weakness, it would have been better. I could have lived better.” We are not alone in these worries. The apostle Paul also had the same concern and frustration that we do, and because of this, he spent countless hours praying to God, “Lord, please heal my weakness.”

What was Paul’s weakness?

First, we could guess it was a physical weakness. It is presumed that Paul had poor eyesight, making it difficult to see well what was ahead of him. Meeting so many people and being a little bit blind can be a devastating weakness as a preacher. Other scholars believe he may have had seizures. As a preacher and a missionary, this would have been inevitably more shameful. He also had a weakness in that he had no gift for public speaking. He wrote much of the New Testament with his unrivaled writing skills and led thousands of people to the Lord with his extensive knowledge and wisdom, but when he stood in front of people, he ironically lacked the ability to speak. Finally, his weakness could be that he lived surrounded by numerous enemies who tried to torture and kill him. Looking at him from the perspective of a third party, he was an infinitely wonderful man of God, but to the teachers of the law and Sadducees of that time, he was seen as a heretic, blasphemer, and disturber of the peace.

He said he prayed to God three times because he had so many weaknesses. The meaning of this “three times” is that he has prayed earnestly for countless hours. Nevertheless, the mystery he realized after such earnest prayer was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).” So he rejoiced in his weaknesses, insults, wants, persecutions, and hardships (9).

We have the same weaknesses. Sometimes our situations, families, circumstances, or people who hate us can bother us and make things difficult for us. If this is true, how about trying this once?

Let’s pray earnestly to God over a certain period focusing on praying for our weakness. “God, strengthen this weakness. Please restore me. Please take this burden from me.” And if you are still in the same place after such earnest prayer, delight in it because your weaknesses remaining is the promise that God will harmonize with your weaknesses and make you a most wonderful and beautiful person of God. When that happens, the people who look at us will recognize that we are beautiful masterpieces as we are, and they will see God through us.