While preaching on Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12), I might have said too much last Sunday. Let me clarify. I don’t believe God sends us any calamity to teach us spiritual lessons or to make us weak so that we can be strong. Though I might have come close to saying that, it was not my intent.
Consider Paul: his weakness may have been a physical deformity or perhaps a speech impediment. Those weaknesses don’t come from God but from the fall. Nonetheless, God is in the redemptive business and he can work in and through our weaknesses in powerful ways to reveal his glory. Thus weakness is not necessarily a liability. In God’s economy, it can be a strength, if we turn to him in trust and dependence.
I’ve always found this truth to be encouraging. As I said last Sunday, you don’t have to have it all together to be used of God. In fact, God might work best when we’re weak, because we depend upon him.
Our Bibles are filled with weak heroes. Abraham and Sarah were past childbearing years; yet God called them to be the father and mother of a great nation. David was the youngest son in a culture that favored the eldest; but he became Israel’s most favored king. Amos was from the Southern Kingdom and sent to preach to the Northern. Mary was just a young teenager, probably 12-13 years old, called to give birth to the Messiah. Jesus was from Nazareth, a small useless town. Paul was Christian killer and a man who could not impress the Corinthians; but he was used of God in mighty ways. All of these weaknesses did not disqualify for service, far from it. It even seems as if God likes to work—or maybe can only work!—with people who’ve acknowledge their need based on a lack in life.
All of this to say, that what really matters in life and in ministry is not WHAT you know but WHO you know. And it’s precisely in our weaknesses that God draws us into a deeper dependence and knowledge upon him. I’ve learned over the years that my insecurity and fear can be used by God as I turn to him in complete surrender. For in weakness, power (my power!) comes to an end, and his work begins. God is good. Peace!
