2 Corinthians 12:7-10; 7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
The Apostle Paul had been given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him because of all the divine revelations given to him by God. I understand the concept mentally as to why doing this would keep Paul from becoming prideful, and us too. The Bible was written to us an example and that means it must apply in my relationship with Jesus, even though I have not experienced what the Apostle Paul did. Paul paid a very high price for the experience of being caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). 2 Corinthians 11:25-28 talks about the price Paul paid.
The Bible promises us that we must pick up our Cross and follow Jesus, meaning we will suffer persecution and trials and tribulations. I was thinking about the verse talking about His strength being made perfect in weakness, our weakness. Most people want to live life their way. They want to believe they are strong and can do this on their own. Me too. But obviously God wants us to depend on Him, not on ourselves. We cannot depend on someone else while depending on our own strength.
This is where a relationship with Jesus comes in. Ephesians 5:21-33 talks about wives submitting to their husbands, but it doesn’t stop there. These verses go on to say the husband is to submit to Jesus, and to give themselves as completely to their wives as Jesus gave Himself to the church. Submission, or submitting to God, is depending on Him. This is the first step to truly finding a strength that we will never have in ourselves. We cannot stop what others do to us, but we can depend on a great, big God to defend us, to strengthen us, to mature us and to make us become who He meant for us to be in the first place.
One of the hardest things to understand is why horrible things happen to us. God gave man free will to choose how they want to live, whether or not they want to serve God, submit to Him, love Him and live for Him. All the abuse in my life caused a lot of damage and for many years of my life I felt I had to accept what was done to me. Even though it has been a struggle, and things didn’t happen as I thought they should, God has brought me through, making me to depend on Him.
There was a time when He told me to take a deep breath as He was about to take me under. This is the place where He broke me. He humbled me. I fought Him because, even though I was broken by the abuse, I didn’t want to be broken by God. He broke me anyway. In this process, it caused me to hold onto Him with every last bit of strength I had. But it wasn’t my strength that brought me through. It was His.
When I felt like quitting, God would always do something to make me take another step. He gave me just enough to keep going for the moment. Then, as I would want to give up again, He would feed me something else to make me able to take another step. Prayer, reading His Word, spending time in His Presence, and journaling were the things that made me hold on and push through. Going to church was a must. Many times, when I felt I couldn’t go on, I knew that by going to church, a sermon would be preached that strengthened me. His Word. His promises. His strength.
Going to church kept me going, but if I hadn’t spent time personally with Jesus, I would not have been able to believe what I was hearing in church. Being “weak” doesn’t feel good to our human flesh. We want to be strong and mighty, like the superheroes we see in the movies. But we don’t have all the answers. We don’t see the whole picture. We have pieces missing in our puzzle. We have cracks in our vessels. 2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” The Strong’s Concordance defines earthen as clay: with the added suggestion of frailty. Some of us have really huge cracks, that sometimes borders on ready to completely fall apart and come unglued.
Whether we know it or not, this is where we can lay it all down at the feet of Jesus and cry for help. This is where we are weak, and we need His strength. He knows how to break us, and bring us to our knees. While this may not be what we want to hear and where we want to be, this is where Jesus touches us, heals us, matures us and gives us His strength. And this is where we are strengthened.
And faith. This is where He builds our faith, in the low places. My pastor’s wife said, “faith makes things possible…not easy!” That faith helps us to trust God even when we don’t understand it all.
The trials and tribulations are what brings us to our knees, but when we let God work in us, to break us, remold us, strengthen us, that is when we become the person that He meant for us to be. The devil thought he had won when he made Adam and Eve to fall, and when he saw Jesus hanging on that Cross. Instead, that was the moment of the devil’s downfall. When we feel we have lost it all, if we will cry out to Jesus, that is when we will find the strength to press on and to become overcomers. Praise God!!!
His Strength Made Perfect in Weakness
