9.11.10 "Your Weakness is your Greatest Strength"

"Your Weakness is your Greatest Strength"

Isaiah 8:1-9:21
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Psalm 55:1-23
Proverbs 23:4-5

God's ways are not our ways. The way He thinks goes against what comes natural for us. Across the walls of the weight room in my high school were the words "Bigger! Faster! Stronger!" This is the focus in athletics. I think that we've got it in our heads that's what God is looking for. That's not true.

God is looking for people who will make themselves available the way they are. What paralyzes us from diving in to radical obedience? Usually it's some form of concern about an area of insecurity. Usually the phrase "I'm not good enough" shows up somewhere in the thought process. We need to aggressively recognize that as a thought that is not of God. It is a prideful thought. "What?? pride?? How can insecurity be pride?" Well, think about it: If you're not "good enough" to accomplish something for God, what does it mean when you do accomplish something? It must mean that you're "good enough", That there's something about you that made this great thing happen. That's how pride and insecurity are so closely linked.

We need to stop being so limited by weakness, and embrace the fact that God desires to use us in our weakness to make His name great. In 2 Corinthians 12:5, Paul says, "I am going to boast only about how weak I am and how great God is to use such weakness for his glory."

What credit is it to God when you are able to do something in your own strength? His plan for your life is filled with supernatural promise. The only thing missing is for you to get out of the way and let Him do his thing.

So what about this weakness? Paul referred to a 'thorn' in the flesh. A sickness as his weakness. He asked God repeatedly to take it away.

2 Cor. 12:9-10 "Each time he said, 'No. But I am with you; that is all you need. My power shows up best in weak people.' Now I am glad to boast about how weak I am; I am glad to be a living demonstration of Christ's power, instead of showing off my own power and abilities. Since I know it is all for "Christ's good, I am quite happy about 'the thorn,' and about insults and hardships, and persecutions and difficulties; for when I am weak, then I am strong - the less I have, the more I depend on him."

We're filled with such fear that others will see our weaknesses... that we will be vulnerable and exposed. We're held captive by this fear. Our reading today from Isaiah 8:13 says, "Don't fear anything except the Lord of the armies of heaven! If you fear him, you need fear nothing else." Imagine the freedom of not worrying about what others think of us. Imagine the freedom of stepping out in faith toward the plans the Lord has laid out.

We get so worried about image. "What will people think?" is such a paralyzing force in the life of the modern day believer. The only thing we should be worried about is carrying out God's orders.

Paul makes an interesting statement in verse 6. "I have plenty to boast about and would be no fool in doing it, but I don't want anyone to think more highly of me than he should from what he can actually see from my life and my message." People often get in the trap of "spinning" their image. They talk about the "glory years" what they could do back then or how they could throw a steak and hit Napoleon on his bike... (inside joke for some) But it's not what we say we "could" do. It's what we do that tells the story.

The spiritual principle of Active Ministry Involvement is Responsibility. We need to fear God, because we have a responsibility to offer him all we have, including our weakness. In failing to do this, we are not being good stewards of the resources He's given us. We are not fulfilling our Responsibility.

The sign on the weight room of our heart needs to say, "Available! Ready! Obedient!" Don't limit yourself from your potential of what God has. In doing so, you're missing the point. It's in your weakness you are made strong. We need to be dependent on him. That can only come if we don't have much to depend on in our flesh.




Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

P Greg


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