102 Corinthians 12:9 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.
Have you ever seen a matchup that from the surface seemed like a sure win from one of the opponents? Did you recognize the underdog? Did it turn out as you predicted? Were you ever on a winning team? A loosing team? Did you ever play, or were you a spectator?
One of the realities of life is that some lose. Not everyone wins. Although, these days, everyone gets a trophy of some type. In fact, most lose. Only one team wins the championship. Only one individual has the fastest time.
So what do we do with the loss personally? How do we deal with it internally? Do we try to turn the loss into a win somehow? Do we just block out the loss?
Our text tells us how Paul dealt with his loss. He recognized his own weaknesses, something many of us aren’t willing to face. In the military, we are challenged every day to face our weaknesses and learn from them. Exercises are designed to, not so much train the strengths, but to explore the weaknesses and learn to overcome them. Weakness is part of life.
Paul faced his weakness. He brought it to God in prayer hoping for some relief from the weakness. But instead the LORD offered him grace. Grace is not the energy of superheroes. It has no power to conquer and external foe.
Instead, grace speaks to our hearts, but we might not like the message it brings. The LORD answers and tells Paul that his grace is enough! Wait a minute. How is that enough. I need deliverance from this thing, Lord. Are you going to leave me in this mess?
And the LORD’s answer is simple: Yes! Hold onto my grace. Your weakness will remain. I’m not going to take that from you. It is yours to carry.
I don’t like that answer. When I am in a pickle, I want out of it. I don’t want a message about staying in the mess. I want the fast road out.
But the LORD gives us hope in the space where despair resided. He tells Paul that his weakness, the very thing from which Paul wanted relief, was the very place where God’s power would show up. In fact, that place of weakness is where God’s power brings everything to it proper conclusion, its fulfillment, its climax.
You see, we were not designed to run on our sufficiency. We were designed to run on our emptiness and His fullness. Remember the Garden Tree? Would Adam and Eve trust what God had said, or would they carpe diem? The LORD provided them everything they needed already. Would they rest in His provision and care?
I have found that when I acknowledge my weakness, and bring that before the LORD, then in that weakness, I sense God’s strength. It is NOT that I get stronger. In fact, I continue to acknowledge that weakness. I stay in the posture of weakness.
It is an upside-down equation. The weaker we are the more God’s strength can inhabit our weakness. When we are strong, then there isn’t room for God’s strength. I don’t know about you, but I like living in God’s strength much more than living in my own. I run out of my own strength much sooner than I had expected. His supply is endless.
His power is made perfect in my weakness. Not a very good bumper sticker, but true none the less. Try it on for size. See if it fits, in a strange backward kind of way.
The Arnold Journey 