The blessing of our weaknesses
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9a)
Weakness is not normally an attribute which is looked at in a positive light. Think about it, the tool being used throughout TLHA and in many other organizations is StrengthsFinder, not WeaknessFinder. We are all too painfully aware of our flaws and weaknesses and try to do everything we can to hide them and not let them show.
All of that is speaking from a selfish and rather arrogant human perspective. Let’s use our Bible verse for this week to help us see the blessing of our weaknesses. That seems very contradictory. How often do you speak of weakness as a blessing?
The first part of our Bible verse is the key to understanding all of this and seeing things the way God would have us see them. Paul reminds us “My grace is sufficient for you”. In other words, God’s grace is what we need and is sufficient enough to sustain us and help us overcome any weakness in our own being or any weakness we may encounter.
In order see how God’s grace is sufficient and receive the blessing of that grace, we need to empty ourselves of any reliance on ourselves, our skills, what we think we can do and trust solely and completely in God. Take a moment to reflect back on your life and look at what you have been blessed to accomplish. If you take that look realistically you will realize that there are things you have been privileged to do that you likely thought you’d never get to or be able to do. I know that I’ve personally looked at what God has given me the opportunity to be a part of and I am blown away that he allowed me to help accomplish some amazing, very cool and blessed things.
How easy it is for us to take credit for what we’ve accomplished and to give the credit to “I”. The second part of our verse for this week reminds us that it is the height of arrogance and foolish to think that we do the things we accomplish. God reminds us from the pen of Paul “for my power is made perfect in weakness”. So it is not “I” who accomplishes the things we do, but rather God’s power being shown in and through us.
8 chapters earlier in 2 Corinthians Paul puts this whole conversation into perspective “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Those words remind us that we are not the strong, unfailing individuals we like to think we are and the way we try to present ourselves to people in public. Realistically we are fragile clay jars who have been entrusted with God’s greatest treasure, the Gospel of Jesus as our Savior.
The very reality that we accomplish anything at all in this sinful world and in spite of our sinful weakness is a glowing tribute to God’s power at work in and through us.
If we were to talk this way to many people, we would be scoffed at and ridiculed. Let us as God’s children humbly rejoice in the privilege of being the earthly vessels which God uses to demonstrate and carry out his powerful work!