Strength in Weakness

But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 

-II Corinthians 12:9

When you really think about this, it can change your entire perspective.
It's one of those things I always go back to and have to remind myself of, and then Joe talked about it in his message on Sunday- not for the first time.

We are human.
When I say that, I do not mean we are just human, I mean we are human, and that is a pretty amazing thing to be. We were created in the image of God and given completely free will. And we are given the choice, multiple times everyday, to do our own will, or to do His, our Father's.
We are given the choice to handle things our way, or His.
We are given the choice to depend on our own strength, or on His.

So many times when we get into scrapes, we try to stay strong. We'll brace ourselves against whatever we're fighting, clench our fists, close our eyes, and just keep plunging onward, blind and deaf to all outside voices, including that of Wisdom. Eventually, our hearts will either break under this pressure, or become completely hardened. Neither is good.

Sometimes we don't take that action during trials, though. Sometimes we beg God to give us strength. This is a step in the right direction, but it is only a one-sided view... what if we don't see what God sees? Maybe we think we need one thing, and God knows we need another...

What if we didn't ask God to give us strength?

What if we asked God to make us weak?


He must become greater; I must become less.

-John 3:30


For Him to increase, I must decrease. We've all heard that said, but have we ever stopped to ponder it? What if we sometimes we aren't supposed to be rocks, bound in iron chains of our stubborn will to stand? There is only one Rock, and we could be standing on Him.
It's okay to be weak.

Perhaps our prayer should be, rather than, "Lord give me strength,"

..."Lord, make me weak in myself, let everything in this fight that is of me and not of You be ground up and discarded so that there is room for You to be the rock here, to guide me to do things Your way. Whether I fight or remain peaceful in this situation, let it be Your Spirit that deciphers within me which of those options is appropriate. Let the actions I take be Your actions, the words I speak be Your words, and the outcome be all to Your glory. Use this trial to mold me more and to guide me closer into being the person You have designed me to be. Help me to step out of the way and let You be the strength here."

We should rejoice at being weak in ourselves, because it means that our GOD IS SO MUCH STRONGER and He is holding us, and we are in the safest place we could possibly be. 

And in the end, it doesn't even come down to words, but to the state of your heart. Only recognize that it is He who wins battles, not us. We are fighting fights not with God as our little helper when we feel we're about to fall, but with God as our Leader and our Armor.

Sometimes, when we let Him take over, He doesn't even lead us into those raging wars we expected Him to help us with, but instead leads us beside those still waters, and restores our souls.