Turning Your “-” into a “+”

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. —2 Corinthians 12:10

The victorious Christian knows how to turn stumbling-blocks into stepping-stones. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress in the Bedford jail, Fanny Crosby in a prison of blindness, wrote scores of hymns we sing regularly. Long is the list of saints who “out of weakness were made strong,” and have turned negatives into positives by the grace of God.

Paul gloried in infirmities. The world glories in strength. Paul rejoiced in tribulation. Most of us grumble in trials. The Christian does not resent his affliction. He does not merely resign himself to it. He rises above it and turn it into a blessing. He is “more than a conqueror.”

When we turn liabilities into assets the world watches and scratches it’s head. “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ,” says Paul. And then what seems loss he turns to gain!

We hear of people who “lose the savings of a lifetime.” But what you really save in a lifetime is what you lay up in heaven, and you cannot lose that. Out of earth’s darkest day you can walk in heavenly sunlight.

Turn your “-” to a “+”