Your Strength Is Your Weakness Part II

4/18/2011

Your Strength is Your Weakness Part II

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

Ok. So we talked the other day about how your areas of strength can be a weakness in the kingdom of God. This is the second part of that thought. . . .

There are qualities that we all possess that may get in the way of doing God’s work. As believers, we say that we are about our father’s business. We are called to make disciples, but in order to make disciples, we must first be a disciple of Jesus. And that requires a change of mindset. You have to learn the ways of the kingdom of God and not assume that how you do things in the secular world are the same as what you will do for God. Now I want to be clear that I am not talking to everybody who calls themselves a Christian. We all know that there are plenty of “Christians” who are not disciples. The disciples have a different mission in life. Disciples know Jesus on a more intimate level than the crowds who benefited from the miracles. Jesus called the disciples His friends. He said that the disciples were the ones who knew the mysteries of the parables, not just the parables themselves. We may start in our walk with God as followers in the crowd, but when he draws you closer and you accept His invitation, prepare to be a disciple. And that will mean that some things will be flipped upside down for you. Where you found your strength in the world, becomes a weakness in Him. I’m going to share a bit of what I have found to be weaknesses for me as I go deeper into my life as a disciple of Christ, working for the kingdom of God.

Being a planner: This is a wonderful attribute in life. I can do a great job of predicting, projecting and preparing things. I can organize my life and my money in ways that creates a very systematic way of saving money, investing, budgeting and even managing my career. Great attributes, right? The truth is, we don’t control anything. We may be able to influence the outcome of something, but surrendering to the authority of God in your life means that planning and expecting things to go according to that plan has to go out the window. I can’t seem to plan anything. I have to embrace the unknown. I might have goals, and dreams and hopes, but mapping out my plan and expecting it to work out exactly like that will have to go out the window for me. Since I am good at that in creating my world, it becomes my weakness in living in the kingdom.

Confidence: This is a tough one. But I tend to be pretty confident in many areas in my life. Especially those things that I have already proven to have done well. As a leader, this has always been something that I have felt was necessary to have in order for people to follow you. Who wants a leader who’s not confident that they know what they are doing? So I just got good at knowing the thing that I was doing very well. And I did a good job of it. But in the kingdom of God, my confidence is not in my own abilities, but in God’s spirit working trough me. So that means that I will be sent into places where I probably don’t qualify to be in order for God to show off His power in me. I cannot study my way to confidence in the kingdom of God, but I have to do my best with what I have and then trust God to fill in the gaps. You don’t need faith when you trust that you can do it on your own. But when you get into a situation where you know that you are clueless, you may just hear the voice of God saying, “Trust in me”.

Being task oriented: I get things done. I’m not saying that to brag. It’s just true. I know how to get things done. That’s why people give me stuff to do. Cause they want it done. And I’m also good at saying no when I don’t think I can get it done. I don’t like to bite off more than I can chew. Here’s the problem in the kingdom of God: The kingdom of God is not about tasks, it’s about relationships. So when I am given a task to perform by God, it is not simply to get the job done, it is also to build relationships along the way. As a matter of fact, once God told me that He was giving me the ability to understand how to get the work done quickly so that I can focus on the people and build relationships with them. Here I was, excited about getting the answer fast, and God was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s not even why you’re here” Sometimes it sucks cause I don’t always feel like being bothered. I want to get in, get the job done, and get on to something else. But knowing that God cares more about people than tasks, I have to pause and discern what it is that God may desire for the people in a situation, not just the job to be done.

So there you have it. This is a partial list of some of my strengths as weaknesses. There’s more, but I’m not going to take up your time with my issues (LOL). Your strengths may be great for you to get that job, manage your money, get promoted, join that organization, or whatever else is considered prestigious in this world. Yet, these things mean nothing to God’s kingdom. I hope this inspires you to take stock of your own life and if you truly do follow Christ as a disciple, know that what gives you a pat on the back in this world, probably won’t cut it in the kingdom. Like Paul said, “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.” Philippians 3:8 NLT. Kingdom work is about relying on the power of God in you, not on just your own power.