Nearly eleven months ago I began a verse-by-verse study of the book of 2nd Corinthians. During those months I have shared with the flock at Meadow some of the keys to living in the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the life of faith is inherently paradoxical, most of us struggle with what it means to rest in the strength which God provides. Our culture and our own sense of reason recoils from anything that smacks of personal weakness. We don’t like yielding, surrendering, waiting or abiding. We prefer to march, to storm, to thunder and to soar. The longer I walk with Jesus the more I am actually finding myself eager to embrace what it means to “wait upon the Lord” so that I might “renew my strength”. Last night I inched us a little further to the end of our study in this great book in our bibles. I told the folks about their weaknesses and shared Paul’s own testimony about his ongoing battles with his thorn in the flesh. Here is how he described his own wrestling match which he eventually embraced so that he might continue on in the power of God and not his own human strength:
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 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.” – 2 Corinthians 12:8-10
God knew about Paul’s weakness. God listened to Paul ask for it to be removed – 3 times. God said no to Paul’s request and communicated to him that God’s supply of needed grace was more valuable to Paul than the absence of the unspecified thorn. God was okay with Paul having weakness. So none of us needs to strive to be the best today. We do not need to tremble when we realize that we do not have all the answers. While those who are stronger, younger, wealthier, smarter, prettier, holier and wiser move quickly past us into realms beyond our potential…we can rest. We can exhale. We can smile and sing and laugh and embrace the ease of knowing that there really is no competition going on here. Jesus is only and always the Strong One so every presumably powerful facet of your and my life which is relied upon apart from His grace is not really a strength at all. In fact, it is a double weakness. Paul matured to the point where he was no longer concerned about the lure of circumstantial ease. He had learned to be content with his very real limitations. The approval and opinion of others was as important to him as the steaming pile of dung from the horse he traveled upon as he went about spreading the gospel. He could love people without being a slave to what they thought of him. He wrote of persecutions and calamities {plural!} and relegated them to being cobblestones along the pathway which led him to the thing he treasured most: intimacy with Jesus. I suppose we might need to answer if we believe that same pathway is still worth it to us 2,000 years after Paul limped upon it.
Your weakness is not a hindrance to God’s plan for your life. It is a major part of the script. It is not something which the Almighty needs to work around – it is the very thing He designs to work through. He is never frustrated with your frailties, limitations and impediments because He has ordained them to remain with you thus far. He has trusted them to you, knowing that you will turn to Him again and again in dependence because of them. If you are not careful you may not notice that these weaknesses are actually the pipe through which God is pouring His glorious strength into you. He is getting the glory, dear friend. Others can see it in you. Ask Him to let you see it also and, when you do, rejoice that He is affording you paradoxical power through precious grace.
Wow absolutely amazing truth! Praise God!!!
This line blows me away and makes me see my struggles from a different perspective: ‘Your weakness is not a hindrance to God’s plan for your life. It is a major part of the script.’ Now I want to search out how my weaknesses are being used as part of the script.