If you’re tired of living defeated or self-reliant, God invites you into a different way: daily dependence on His sufficient grace. Dr. Michael Youssef points to Paul’s “thorn” and Paul’s prayer for the Colossians to show how God’s power produces endurance, fruitfulness, and joyful strength.
Have you slipped into self-sufficiency—trying to navigate life with your own wisdom, grit, and ingenuity—only to feel discouraged, depleted, or stuck? In today’s episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef reminds you that God never intended you to live on human strength.
Paul learned this firsthand through his persistent “thorn,” pleading for relief—only to hear God’s life-changing answer: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Instead of viewing weakness as failure, Paul came to see it as the very place where Christ’s power rests most clearly—turning hardship into holy dependence and defeat into spiritual strength.
Dr. Youssef also highlights Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1:9–12, showing what God’s power is meant to produce in everyday life: deeper understanding of God’s will, a life that pleases the Lord, fruitfulness in good works, growing knowledge of God, and supernatural endurance marked by joyful gratitude. God doesn’t only want you to acknowledge Him as Creator—He wants you to know His power personally, especially when you feel weakest.
Prayer: Mighty God, thank You for Your power that is available to me personally. Forgive me for the times I have worked in my own strength instead of finding my rest in You. Help me to depend on Your power today so that I can serve You and those You have put in my life. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18-19).
Learn more in Dr. Michael A. Youssef’s sermon series The Secrets of Positive Living: LISTEN NOW