When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong

2 Corinthians 12:10

ESV

“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.”

Gods strength is made manifest upon my admission of weakness. His power is made perfect in my weakness, and only after my limits are reached can His infinite nature begin to work in me. I am chained to limits in my flesh, and only when I cry out to Jesus am I able to bound over the walls of limit. The struggle along the way has been learning where those limits are. The journey is treacherous, full of dangers, hardships, uncertainty, unpredictability, fears, anxieties, weariness. Everything will come tumbling down as we press on to know where we end, and He begins. Those moments, I have learned, are where it counts. All the hard work that lies behind is worth nothing if I don't take heart when I reach my limit. I have a choice; cry out in faith to the One who saves, who will help me leap over the wall that exists within my ability, or to call it quits and turn back. I would be forsaking the abounding grace of my Father which lies just beyond the cry of my voice to Him who rests in green pastures on the other side, among many brothers and sisters who have gone before me and been helped in their inability by the Lord. The choice is clear, cry out!! He is willing and able to be sufficient to me in my weakness. God will complete that which is incomplete in me through His Son. Apart from Him, I am nothing, and can do nothing. Why then, would I doubt the ability of He who spoke the stars in the sky and made this man of the dust of Earth? Because my mind is set on my flesh, rather than the Spirit. I do not look to the One who is able, I focus so much on my inability! All the time I've spent in vain telling God the disparities of life, when I could've been grasping the grace He has for me in those times! The wicked “I” takes the center stage while all the while God is waiting for me to come boldly to His throne of grace! He has what I need! Will I still myself and let Him fight for me? Yes, but not as often as I'd like to admit. In order for God to work, He must have full control. The potter needs full control of the clay to do His masterful work, and I must fully yield myself and my weaknesses to His hands. He will do what only He can do. Clay cannot in itself fix where it is weak. It needs the hands of one who can identify the weakness, and strengthen it. The greatest difficulty for me has not been the trial itself, but rather the waiting upon God to do what only He can do. Holding fast to the promises He laid centuries ago, and believing Him to bring them to pass in His perfect timing. God doesn't always want to bring instant deliverance from my weaknesses, because He desires to test my heart, to teach me endurance. And I can surely testify that those who wait upon the Lord will not be ashamed, will not be left for dead, or forgotten. He is a faithful God, a wise God, who will never let us down. The Lord will help us by His Spirit to endure the sufferings and weaknesses, and make us better men and women of God as a result. Be still, and know, He is God.