Strength Through Weakness

Paul describes one of the most difficult things for us to grasp and believe about the life of faith: God purposefully blesses us with weaknesses for the sake of our joy being found in His strength rather than our own independence.

2 Corinthians 12:5-10

Paul referred to his struggles and sufferings with terms like lashings, beatings, imprisonments, shipwrecks, danger, hunger, exposure to nature’s elements and to personal conflict and danger. The reality of is that Paul was a man who had tremendous faith, brains, guts, and endurance; and a work ethic second-to-none. Compared to Paul, I am a sorry excuse for a Christian. That is the danger of comparison though.

But, above all that he endured that danger was exactly what Paul feared most. He knew the temptation of comparison would cause him to become distracted. He didn’t want anything to take his eyes off the prize. In moment’s like these when we are tempted to compare ourselves to others we are also tempted to look away from the cross. We lose sight of the sufficiency of grace. It is all we need. He is all that we need.

In our fallen nature we crave glory and recognition. We seek the admiration of others. We love superhero story because deep down we all want to be a hero. We want our successes to be known, our strengths to shine and our failures to be hidden, our weaknesses to go unseen. When others around us gain status and achieve success, we are tempted to believe that they earn the favor of God above us.

Paul knew that it was not his achievements that brought glory to God and displayed the grace of God. It was his weaknesses, his inabilities, his helplessness. That was where God was made known. That is where received glory.

Like us, Paul didn’t immediately recognize the thorn as a gift. We don’t look at our inabilities and think of them as gifts from God. Neither did Paul. He pleaded for deliverance. But Jesus replied, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”

That was a paradoxical statement. The idea that God showed His strength through weak things. But it is a notion that was laced all throughout the history of God’s creation, culminating in the cross.

Paul said, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong”

Are you content with the weaknesses you live with? Are you thankful for your weaknesses? Can you see them as gifts, blessings from God?

We all live with diverse kinds of limitations and inabilities. The more aware you are of God’s grace, the more you can begin to rely upon His abilities rather than your own. This kind of awareness can only occur when you own up to your weaknesses and embrace them. He doesn’t want to leave you there. He merely wants to bring out of it. When He does, He will use the strengths he has given you to great things in His name. It is in your weakness that you make the strength of God known to the world that surrounds you.