January 11, 2026 - How to Experience God's Transforming Glory

It is amazing to discover the people that God chooses. It usually is the people others pass over. That was certainly true for David when Samuel came to anoint one of Jesse's sons to become the next king; even his father didn’t bother to have David stand before the prophet. God generally chooses the weak and the nobodies of our world to manifest his grace, glory, and power. Kent Huges points out: “The Lord called Moses despite his inarticulateness, then no one can claim the prophets’ excuses (Gideon’s military weakness, Isaiah’s sin, Jeremiah’s youth, or Ezekiel’s trepidation), or the weaknesses we may offer, as valid reasons to duck God’s respective call.”

Scott Hafemann echoes that same sentiment: “Indeed, the call of Moses demonstrates that these very obstacles are an essential part of the call itself, illustrating clearly that God’s grace, not the prophet’s strength, is the source of his sufficiency.”

Paul is able to balance his negative declaration, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves,” with the positive counterpoint, “but our sufficiency is from God” (v. 5). And Paul goes on to explain that his sufficiency comes from two things: 1) the sufficiency of the new covenant and 2) the sufficiency of the Spirit.” What we discover is that God’s transforming glory is expressed through human weakness so that people will come to understand that it is the power of God’s grace working through our lives that brings about God’s power and virtues.

Scott Hafemann explains the amazing grace of God’s covenant with us and our need to move from our self-sufficiency to total dependency on God. “The contemporary significance of our passage revolves around one central, all-determining point: God is the source and supply of our lives, as demonstrated by his calling and equipping his people for service in a covenant relationship with him. The call of God takes place in Christ; the service takes place by means of the Spirit. This is true whether one is an apostle called to be a minister of the new covenant in the first century or a believer called to be faithful in service to others in the twenty-first. Though inherently offensive to the self-reliance and self-glorification that are so much a part of modern culture (and every culture since the Fall), Paul’s stark reminder is that we cannot claim anything as coming from ourselves (cf. Rom. 11:36; Eph. 2:8–10). All things come from God (cf. 1 Cor. 8:6; 2 Cor. 1:21). Nothing we have is earned; everything is a gift (1 Cor. 4:7).