Journey into Lightl

I  have been trained to hate my weaknesses. One of them is White Coat Syndrome. This means that my blood pressure soars when I get it read in a doctor’s office. Yet, when I take it at home it is normal.

How scary and how embarrassing it is when the nurses and doctors express their alarm to me, though I know their concern is bogus. I really don’t have the problem that they think I have.

Nevertheless, I am taking several steps to try to rid myself of this weakness. Yet, I wonder if this will be my “thorn in the flesh” the rest of my life (2 Corinthians 12:7).

I was reading an article this week about a well-known pastor and his struggle with anxiety and depression. He has been fighting these afflictions for years and has come to the realization that God is using these weaknesses to do great things through his life. He concludes with the following statement: “And so I join Paul in boasting of my weakness, for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

So, does God allow us to have weaknesses in order to make us strong?

Yes!

God told Paul that he allowed a weakness in his life just to keep Paul from pride and trying to muscle his way through life in his own strength. God said to Paul, “[My] power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Paul was greatly used by God, but it wasn’t because he had no weaknesses. “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:3-4).

Thus, the blessing of our weaknesses is that they can motivate us to depend on God for the strength to do what only he can do. Otherwise, we may be suckered into making flesh our strength and turning away from dependence on God and his power (Jeremiah 17:5).

I have seen people that I thought were too strong in human strength. They did not have the natural weaknesses that so many of us have. Yet, their lives were shallow and they lacked supernatural strength.

So, how are we supposed to respond to our weaknesses? Just roll over and accept whatever hand we have been dealt?

No!

Like Paul, we need to seek God for his strength to overcome our weaknesses. “Concerning [my weakness], I entreated the Lord three times that [the weakness] would depart from me” (2 Corinthians 12:8).

Yet, sometimes God will say to us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness ” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Thus, he sometimes leaves human weaknesses in our lives so that we will become stronger supernaturally. We need to view our weaknesses as opportunities to be transformed by God’s strength.

May we become more like Paul who said, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).