by Kevin Burton
Even the Apostle Paul asked God the question, made the request. So I don’t feel quite as bad about not initially embracing my own weakness.
In fact, Paul asked three times.
My idea is to acknowledge weakness when I must, but then work to try to get rid of it. Oh and above all, don’t let any weakness show!
But that’s not God’s formula. God’s work must be done 100 percent in God’s power.
Think of your toddler “helping” you cook breakfast and you begin to get the idea.
In 1 Corinthians 12 we read about Paul being caught up into the third heaven to see things no other human has seen. In order to keep him humble back on earth he was given “a thorn in the flesh,” some sort of bodily hinderance that slowed him down.
“Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me.And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12: 8-10 NASB).
Coming to terms with our weakness, as compared to God’s strength, is prerequisite to Christian service, according to Alistair Begg, speaker on the Truth For Life radio ministry.
“A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing God’s work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness,” Begg writes.
“When God’s warrior marches out to battle, strong in his own might, when he boasts, “I know that I will overcome—my own ability and my self-confidence will be enough for victory,’ defeat is staring him in the face.”
“God will not enable the man who marches in his own strength. He who reckons on victory by such means has reckoned wrongly, for “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6 NKJV).
“Those who go out to fight, boasting of their ability, will return with their banners trailing in the dust and their armor stained with disgrace. Those who serve God must serve Him in His own way and in His strength, or He will never accept their service.”
“Whatever a man does, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth He casts away; He will only reap corn the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love.”
Too often my approach has been to struggle through issues, then serve up the best of my ideas and plans for God to endorse and implement. Doesn’t work that way.
“God will empty out all that you have before He will put His own into you; He will first clean out your granaries before He will fill them with the finest of wheat,” Begg writes.
“The river of God is full of water; but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in His battles but the strength that He Himself imparts.”
“Are you mourning over your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give you victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and you are being humbled to prepare you for being lifted up,” Begg writes. “When I am weak then am I strong. Grace is my shield and Christ my song.”
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