Strength in Our Weakness

People don’t usually want to display an image of weakness or vulnerability. They don’t want to cry in public. They feel ashamed of having emotions. There are even people who will not ask for help, so that they don’t show themselves to be weak. But we read in the Bible that Jesus came in weakness. ‘For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God’ (2 Corinthians 13:4).

God could have chosen mighty acts to display power and strength when He came to earth, but He chose to show Himself in weakness. I think this is a paradigm for our Christian life. We see repeatedly in the Bible that God chooses weak vessels to show His might. For example, He chose David, a mere boy, to execute justice on the Philistines and the giant Goliath (1 Samuel 17).

He chose a man from the least of the tribes of Israel, Gideon, to defeat the Midianites (Judges 6-8). The Lord even kept telling Gideon to send soldiers home, so they would have only a tiny army when they defeated the Midianites. That was so that no man would be able to boast about the victory, but everyone would see the power of God, and know that it was God who delivered them.

There is purpose in God using what we consider weakness in order to show His strength. It is so that we glorify Him who is worthy, and not men, or the strength of men. Men are weak, and God is all powerful. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. Whenever we can’t do something, and we feel like giving up, God’s power can enable us to do tasks that are beyond us. God wants us to run to Him in our weakness and find not only shelter, but strength in Him. Time and time again, God allows hardship in our lives so we can realise we cannot do it alone, and we are in constant need of a saviour, a hero, to come save us and rescue us. When this happens, He gets all the glory and the honour, not us.

Next time you feel weak, or like giving up, remember all the great heroes of the faith and their walk with the Lord, and remember that their weakness was not a disqualifier for God to move, but it very much qualified them for God to use them for His glory. Paul was a man who realised he was weak. He murdered and persecuted Christians, now his fellow brothers in the faith, and for him to say that he boasted about his weakness makes it pretty clear that there is no limit to God’s forgiveness. Whatever it was that was Paul’s weakness, his thorn in the flesh, he knew God could work with it and bring something beautiful out of nothing.