But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
After Paul fervently prayed for God to remove a particular trial from his life, he received an answer. It was not the answer he hoped for… but ultimately was even better. God’s grace, Paul learned, may not just remove trials but give us strength to endure them and even grow through them.
In the weakness we feel in such difficulties, we actually find that God fills up our insufficiency with his super-sufficiency. This is not God forgetting our need, but actually meeting our greatest need: to find our identity and strength and joy in God. We find our greatest fulfillment, pleasure, and help in an accurate view of ourselves that leads us to a greater view of, and dependency upon, God.
Let the very feebleness you feel drive you to Christ for strength, wisdom, and salvation.
We might summarize the lesson this way: the more we feel our own weakness, our own smallness, our own insufficiency … the more we are led to lean wholly upon God … and, because He is sufficient for our every need, our many needs are met rather than ignored.
When I am weak, then I am strong. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the gospel itself: “While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).
God sent his son Jesus to die for sinners, because sinners could never save ourselves through our own strength or our best good works!
God’s great and gracious purpose is for us to see our own weakness and sinfulness before a holy and good God — and come, in our very weakness, to trust in the strength of Christ’s work on the cross, on our behalf.
God shows his strength in our weaknesses!
Think about that next time you feel helpless in sickness, or don’t have wisdom for an important decision, or find yourself suddenly overwhelmed by temptation, or want to speak well of Jesus to an non-Christian but feel intimidated.
Let the very feebleness you feel drive you to Christ for strength, wisdom, and salvation.