Thursday, April 4th, 2024
Yesterday morning, as I was going out to take care of the chickens at o’-dark-thirty, God put a prayer on my heart, “God, it feels like I am getting weaker, but I know that You are making me stronger.” As the words came out of my mouth, it felt sort of silly, but at the same time it sent a rush of encouragement to my soul. A majority of the population would not agree that being weaker makes us stronger. But this is another one of those Kingdom opposites. Let’s look at a few verses. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 says:
9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
In this scripture Paul is actually praising his weakness. He has become so confident in the provision of his Heavenly Father that he is essentially looking for the places of lack where God’s strength is the only possible option. How many of us have gotten to that point? How freeing would it be to boast in our weaknesses instead of trying to cover them up, overcompensate for them or beg God to take them away? It’s a complete shift to our thinking.
Isaiah 40:29 is another example:
29 He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
How do we receive power? After we recognize and acknowledge we are weak. If we are walking around thinking we are strong enough or thinking we won’t be any good until our weaknesses are gone, there is really no reason for God to give us strength.
John 3:30 says it another way:
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
The phrase after the “but” is what must happen first. If we want more of God’s presence and power, we must be willing to get ourselves out of the way. If all we can think about are our weaknesses, we still haven’t learned to decrease. Most of us can easily say we want more room for God in our lives, but the action of making sacrifices in order to make room for Him is where some of us lose courage. We are afraid that less of us means we will lose our identity. In essence this is what should happen. The identity that has been formed by imperfect experiences and imperfect responses needs to be exchanged for one that knows it was made in the image of an unconditionally loving God. This is letting God be strong when we are weak.
Final Thoughts…
Focusing all of our energy on trying to erase our weaknesses really is pride. In a sense we are saying that if it were not for our weaknesses, we would be happier or have more peace or be able to serve God. We are making ourselves the object of our “healing”. We are not allowing God to give us strength in the midst of our weakness. We are not trusting that He can use our broken and busted selves. We are disqualifying what God has qualified. Lord, in the times that it feels like we are getting weaker, help us to trust that You are making us stronger.