When You Are Weak “I Am Strong”

The Bible says “When you are weak, I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10b) We may read this and think “but how do I harness your strength Lord?” Hopefully our fitting response to this dichotomy is to meditate on the verse and continue reading Scripture so that the Holy Spirit can illuminate the answer.

Psalm 91 tell us how our weakness can actually be strength when we bring our need to Christ.

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

We Must Dwell With God And Acknowledge His Name

Psalm 91 tells us that we must dwell with the Lord and acknowledge His name in order to have His protection and help. Dwelling with someone means that we talk with them, we listen to them, we think of them and have a relationship with them. Worshiping God, praying, reading His Word for guidance and constantly meditating on what we have read is dwelling with God. The closeness we feel from doing these things enables us to trust Him at His Word and this empowers us to be obedient to it.

“My grace is sufficient for you. My power works best in weakness.” (2 Cor 12:9)

If we were able to handle all of our problems all of the time, we would miss out on experiencing the power of God within us. This power can guide, calm and give us strength to stand strong even in our most dire situations. Not only would we miss out on experiencing God’s power within us, but a prideful attitude would be lurking in the shadows of our personality, causing the Holy Spirit’s voice to be suppressed. Pride is destructive as Scripture tells us, and it needs to be quashed.

When the Apostle Paul was weak from a “thorn in the flesh,” he begged God to remove it. God did not remove it so that Paul would remain humble. A man like Paul- a proficient writer and successful “fisher of men” for the Gospel, could have succumbed to an attitude of pride but instead remained humble while clinging to the Lord.

Pride is a terrible thing according to the Lord.

“Pride comes before destruction” (Prov 16:18a)

Leaving God out of our problems is saying “God I got this, you can help someone else.” The secular world says “problems make you stronger.” The Christian world says “problems draw us near to God who can be our strength through the storm.”

Pride leaves God out of our lives, but humility acknowledges we are in need of God’s strength and this heart posture opens our Spirit to hear and learn from Him.

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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-11)

We Suffer From The Sinful Choices Of Others And Ourselves

Paul suffered for spreading the Gospel. The Gospel offends many people and Christians who are sharing it will, like Paul, encounter hate at times. But we suffer from our own sins/ poor choices as well. Choices that oppose the way God created the world. But the Lord gave us an escape route.

Psalm 50:15
Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

We may get ourselves into many troubles. However, when we call on God for help and obey His leading, we initiate God’s guidance to put us on a safe and stable path.

“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” (Prov 3:4-5)

If we refuse to abide in God it will be difficult to hear Him. But the minute we decide to read His Word, listen for His guidance and be still, we will begin to hear God’s gentle guidance. Partnering with God is the best way to solve all of life’s issues. We must push past the secular attitude of “I can handle this” and instead bring our problems, no matter how small, to the Lord because it is a joy for the Lord to solve them. Scripture tells us:

“The joy of the Lord is our strength.”(Neh 8:10)

The Hebrew word for joy in this verse means to “rejoice in” [God]. Therefore, as we rejoice in the power, love and kindness of our Lord before He answers our prayer, we gain strength. And in the verse below we learn that Christ enters our situation through our praise.

“But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel.”(Psalm 22:3)

Let’s offer up our needs to God and stay close to Him, teaching our children to do the same. In this way we bring God into all the problems we face, both as individuals and as parents. And when we bring God into our problems we have taken on the most powerful force in the universe. God never disappoints a person who waits for Him.

“God can do exceedingly above and beyond all we could ask or think according to the power that works in us.” (Eph 3:20)

Food For Thought,

Lisa