Yoir Stregnth is Your Weakness

4/15/2011
Your Strength is Your Weakness

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV

We all have things that we do well and things that we do not so well. When I think about the things I do well, I can see that there is a source of pride in that. Not always in a bad way. But in a good way, too. I am good at academic works, financial planning, writing, public speaking, reading, leadership, preaching, and probably some other things too. All of these things have served me well over my lifetime. I found my strengths and I used them to the best of my ability. And for that have been rewarded.

And then we transition to life in the kingdom of heaven and we find that where we have been strong in the past, we cannot always use those things to serve people in the name of God. There are times in our walk with God that He will not use us in our strength but will use us in our weakness. For Paul in 2 Corinthians, he asked God to take away something that made him feel like he was weak, and God said “No!”. God wasn’t going to take it away because it was that very thing that kept Paul from becoming too boastful about who he was and the things that he could do. So Paul, after a long time to praying for God to just take this thing away, decided to surrender to the fact there there was going to be something in his life that was there on purpose to keep him in line. There was something in his life that would keep him humble. And that something would also keep him in prayer before God.

For me, I have had the situations where I have prayed to God to help me be stronger where I notice that I am weak. I don’t like to appear weak, but it is in that very weakness that God is glorified. Especially when God sends you to the places where your weakness will be glaring! You won’t be able to hide it. None of us really likes to be exposed for what we can’t do. It’s not in our culture to boast in the fact that we can’t do it. And that may very well mean that you are in the perfect place for God to use you. Think about it, if you only do what you can do, where will people see God? It is His strength that is made perfect in your weakness. You get to see just how strong God is when you are faced with something that you are helpless against. When you are in a position that you don’t know it all. When you are solely dependent of God to get you through it.

We can hear so many people bragging about the things they can do, or have done, or think they will do. But it is rare for us to hear about someone boasting in what they cannot do, but what God can do through them. We don’t say, “I’m terrible at relationships! Praise God!” or “I am so grateful that I can’t manage my money!” or “This is the third time I messed up this week! Hallelujah!” No. We would rather play the woe is me game for those things and brag about what we are good at. Yet, in these opportunities in life it may be the perfect time for you to invite God into this place of weakness to show off His strength. Maybe God is actually waiting on you to stop having a pity party about what you can’t do, and thank Him for what He can do. No self-help book is going to fix some of these problems. Our culture tends to be the do-it-yourself-culture. Nothing is out of our control or power, at least in our own minds. We can “Thinks and Grow Rich”, “Name it and Claim It”, “Speak it into existence”, “Have a Happier Life in 10 Days”, “Get a Man in 10 days or less”, “Lose 100 pounds in 12 days”, “And retire rich in 10 years!” We can do everything ourselves. And that’s our problem.

The more we believe that we can take our weaknesses and make them strengths, the less we depend on God. I’m not saying that it is not possible, but I am suggesting that instead of starting to address these issues by ourselves, we start with taking it to God. Let God reveal to you what the next step should be, if anything. Maybe in this season of your life, it is not good for Him to take away something that makes you weak. Maybe that thing is the only reason you keep praying. Maybe that thing will be the very area in which he will use you in the future. Maybe this is something that has a root cause from a childhood issue that God is trying to heal. Maybe God is keeping you weak in this area for His purpose. But you will never know until you take it to Him. He might just tell you like he told me: “Where you are weak I am strong”. And I just have to let Him use me anyway. In spite of myself or my attempt to make myself better and stronger. To God be the glory!