The Gift of Weakness

We love gifts!  Sometimes gifts are practical and sometimes they are just for fun, but when we think of a gift, we don’t normally think of something challenging that could produce frustration or failure.  

When was the last time you heard someone say, “OOOhhhh!!  Why, thanks for that!  That is so difficult and frustrating.  I’m gonna love it!”

Have you ever considered the possibility that your weakness is a gift?  I don’t mean a gift like a strength or a talent.  There are things that you do with more ease and skill than others.  Those are your strengths.

God can use our strengths when yielded to Him, but He receives more glory when we yield and allow Him to work through our weaknesses.

What is the highest goal of our lives?  Is it to look good?  Is it to feel good?  Is it to do life with “atta boys” and ease?   No.  We were meant to know and walk with Father God relying on His Spirit to bring Him glory.  How that looks is often difficult to understand this side of eternity but one day it will be very clear.

Consider this.  What if you were good at everything?  What if you were an expert at all things and everything you attempted was easy?  Would you ever be aware that you needed help?   Would you ever get help?

If you had no weakness, what reason would you have to join with anyone else to accomplish something beyond yourself if you had no weaknesses?

You would be self-sufficient without the need of help to do anything beyond what you could do on your own.

Jesus came to earth to seek and save all that was lost and to restore what was broken.  The reason we put our trust in Christ instead of our own effort is because we realize we are in need.  What if we lived our entire life feeling and believing that we are self-sufficient?  There would be no reason to seek a savior if we didn’t see the need to be saved.

When your own strength is your security, you’re only as good as your weakest day.

What if weakness was a gift and an invitation to beyond-natural living?  John 15 says that apart from Him I can do nothing.  In essence, that means apart from His strength and ability I don’t accomplish things of substance or lasting value.

4 Benefits of Weakness

1. Weakness is a gift that reveals my need and the lie that I am self-sufficient.
2. Weakness is an invitation  to true strength instead of a false sense of security in my limited humanity.
3. Weakness leads us to operate in partnership and team with Father, Holy Spirit and those  He has placed around us to partner with.
4. When we partner with Him and others out of weakness it eventually eliminates our limitations.

Weakness is a gift that reveals my need and the lie that I am self-sufficient.

The apostle Paul realized this secret 2,000 years ago and it is why he said:

“That is why, for Christʼs sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭12:10‬ ‭

We all have weaknesses.  Weakness is not sin, Paul wouldn’t delight in sin.  It is not something I need to be sorry for or even ashamed of.  When we are confronted with our weakness, we then have a choice to embrace Christ and His sufficiency or despise God because of it.  If we do not let weakness push us to a closer walk with the Father and Christ’s strength, it often leads us to take matters into our own hands by trying to resolve issues apart from God which always ends badly.

What about Jesus?  He was a man like us on earth.   Did He have weakness?   You may be thinking “Come on, He was God in the flesh, He didn’t have any weakness!”

Weakness can lead to self-sufficient efforts which cause us to sin, but weakness is not sin.  Did Jesus experience the limitations and frailty that is part of our human experience?   Yes, he did.  He got hungry, tired and overwhelmed.  He cried, he got angry, and He even sweat blood as He asked Father if there was a way for His purpose to be fulfilled other than the cross.  He experienced weakness.

We all know the weaknesses that come with being human.  But, one thing that we will never ever understand is what it was like to be the second person of the Trinity. Omnipresent, everywhere.  Omniscient, knowing all.  Omnipotent, power without limit.  Besides all of those, He had perfect relationship with Father and Holy Spirit full of love, joy, comfort and peace.  He laid all of that aside to become a man.  A human.  A weak, limited, needy human.

What was Jesus weakness?  He was a man.

When He told Paul, “My grace is sufficient, my power is made perfect in weakness ” ( 2 Cor. 12:9), He knew what He was talking about.  Question:  Could mankind have been redeemed if Christ never became a man?   No.  Mankind gave itself to the power and bondage of sin.  A man did that.  We all did.  The only way mankind could be restored back to the state we were created to live in was for someone to live a life in relationship with and led by the Spirit of God.  Jesus had to become a man.

His power was made perfect in weakness.  His redemptive destiny and power were realized fully in His state of weakness as a man, not in his Omnipotent state of deity.

“For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you.” 2 Cor. 13:4 

How did Jesus allow weakness to be a gift?  He lived close to the Father.  He lived in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit.

But, He knew how to not be limited by the weakness of His humanity.  He allowed His weakness to become His greatest strength.

He used the gift of weakness to lead him to partner with Father and Holy Spirit.  Weakness is a gift that leads us to operate in partnership and team with Father, Holy Spirit and those  He has brought around us to partner with.  When we embrace the partnerships and teams He has for us, it allows us to bring our strength and roles together (like the Trinity has specific roles) to cover our weaknesses.

My weakness leads me to partnership and relationship.  The longer I run from my weakness and live out of my limited strengths, the longer I live separated from the help that I desperately need.  When we partner with Him and others out of weakness it will eventually eliminate our limitations.

What are the weaknesses that you have tried to avoid at all costs?    Who are those God has placed around you that will give you the courage and strength to fulfill what He has called you to do?  Take the opportunities you have in 2018 to partner with the Holy Spirit and others to actually see strength increase in the place of our weakness.

This post is linked to

• pt 2 “To Dream Is To Be Free”
• Process: Tough-Guy Detox
• Lone Ranger Quiz and Free Stuff
• “Come Into My Circle” by Nick Honerkamp

#invitation #gift #possibility  #nolimits #easter