Embracing Your Weakness

Where do your strengths lie? What are you tempted to boast in? The typical pattern and temptation of humanity is to identify ourselves and find our value in those things that we deem most impressive about ourselves. Being a good athlete, excelling academically, our creative prowess, being accomplished in our profession, our upright moral character, the list goes on. We are encouraged to lean into our strengths, utilize our gifts, and be true to ourselves. Now, to be certain, God has indeed granted to us individual natural dispositions, giftings, and skills through which we are able to pursue excellence, glorify God, and encourage those around us. But we were never intended to find our identity in those things. We are instead meant to recognize our weakness, our ineptitude, and our complete and utter need for a savior.

In 2 Corinthians 12, we see God’s response to Paul’s prayer to remove his weakness, his “thorn in the flesh”, where verse 9 says, “But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. God’s majesty and power is put on display and “made perfect” or completed when it is viewed in His working through our weakness. Which should lead us directly to Paul’s conclusion, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me”. Christian, when was the last time you boasted in your weaknesses? Not with a sense of false pride or self-deprecation, but in an honest acknowledgement of your insufficiency in a way that highlights the might and majesty of your Savior. When was the last time you stepped out in faith and humility, knowing that in yourself you were completely incapable, but trusting in our great God who chooses to accomplish His purposes through His people? The beauty of this, is that it instantly destroys our pride and turns our focus away from ourselves and fixes it in worship of our Savior. Scripture is full of people who saw their weaknesses and failures as barriers to their obedience to God’s calling. Yet, through the excuses and doubts, in His kindness and grace, He brought them along, growing their faith and confidence not in themselves or their capabilities, but in God whose strength is made perfect in weakness. He has chosen what is weak and foolish in the eyes of the world to magnify his power and authority, all to our good and His glory. Churches do not fall into the lie of finding your identity in your strengths or your value through boasting in your accomplishments. You were made to worship, so glorify God by embracing His strength through your weaknesses.