By Greg Laurie

“Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
—2 Corinthians 12:9–10

When I was a kid, I collected snakes. I thought they were great, and I had them in all sizes. Years later, I met a man who shared my interest. Only, he collected venomous snakes. He had learned to handle them while working in a zoo. I really admired him. He had been bitten by a tiger snake, which is the most venomous snake on earth. It’s even more deadly than a cobra. This man survived the snakebite because he had been taking serum and had developed an immunity to the tiger snake’s venom. As a result, this man came to believe that he was virtually indestructible, that no snake could ever take him down. He let cobras that had not been defanged slither around loose in his house.

One day, while he was at home, he was bitten by a cobra but didn’t realize it until later when his leg began to swell. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died. This man believed that because he had survived the tiger snake’s bite, he didn’t need to worry about cobras. That became his downfall.

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