Your Grace Alone
Author
Milagros García Klibansky
Summary: As I receive and read my brothers’ comments, I feel gratitude, humility, and a strange sense of embarrassment, because I know that the praise does not belong to me. I am a person full of flaws and struggles, but God can shape me and use me as an instrument of blessing. If anything that has been written blesses others, the surpassing power comes from Him and not from this fragile jar of clay. Therefore, we should neither give glory to people nor look down on ourselves because of our weakness. When God is in us, He can use us for His purpose even if we do not consider ourselves worthy. By His grace we are His children, we receive power, we exist, and we bless other lives; let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.
Every weekend I take some time to read the comments from my brothers and sisters that the leaders of the Lion of Judah virtual congregation’s website send me by email, since in Cuba we do not have access to the internet; therefore, this is the only means of communication we have, and we thank God for it because there is no other way to write and be able to share with you, brothers and sisters.
When I read these comments, I tell you honestly, my eyes fill with tears and I feel ashamed, but it is a strange kind of shame. It is a shame filled with gratitude and humility, for I know that none of this praise belongs to me—not to me, not to the hand that writes.
I am a person full of flaws. Only God knows how hard it is for me to be what He expects me to be; only He can understand the battle that unfolds in my soul as I strive to be an instrument of blessing and allow myself to be molded by His infinitely loving hands.
I am nothing; I do not even write. I never knew how to do so until He took possession of my mind. When I reread the things He has written, I feel more certain that the one guiding me is not my spirit, but His, and that makes me feel complete, because with my spirit I could never bless anyone; He can.
I am not a pastor; I do not even think I could ever become one, for I believe this is a calling for loftier spirits, for people who are closer to perfection than I am.
But today, I want to give endless thanks to my God, because He has used this shapeless vessel of clay for His glory. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God, and not of us” 2 Corinthians 4.7, because He has allowed 2 Corinthians 12.9 to be fulfilled in me, and He has said to me: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will most gladly boast rather in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Therefore, brother or sister reading this testimony, do not give me the glory I do not possess; give the glory to Him, and apply this testimony to your own life.
Never think less of yourself if God is in you, because He will use you for His purpose even if you are certain that you do not deserve such an honor.
By His grace we are His children.
By His grace we have power.
By His grace we exist.
By His grace we bless other lives.
“So that, as it is written:
Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord”
Amen