Treasure in Jars of Clay

Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God… we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves (2 Corinthians 4:6-7ASV).

Apostle Paul had a unique way to look at trials and oppositions in his life. He came to actually embrace the negative things in his life not as potential threats to his

well-being or success but opportunities to bring glory to God. He discovered that God does not take away from us things that magnify our weaknesses rather He allows such things to enter our life that we may experience His grace to overcome them. God does not spare the righteous man of afflictions rather God allows them that He might deliver the righteous man out of them all.

Job came to know God not because he experienced great pain but that he experienced the God who restored Him in the midst of that pain. God did not spare Jesus the cross but resurrected Him as a result of it. He was given the grace to endure the cross so that He could overcome the world.

God gives us Jesus but He comes to us packaged inside our frail humanity. We must not rely upon our fleshly ways of thinking or we will miss the treasure of the knowledge of Christ within us. The babe in the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes was God’s gift to us not the rags wrapped around Him or the manger full of hay. We find the Lord when we see that our own righteousness is rags and our clever words and works are hay, wood, and stubble. Inside of our weaknesses we find the strength of God and in that strength alone can we do all things.