“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak then am I strong.”
We normally think of weakness as a negative thing, and in some sense it is. For example, when we are weak and cowardly, afraid to face life and to do our best, weakness is a negative thing. But the way Paul uses the word here it is a positive thing. Paul had just taken his unknown “thorn in the flesh” to the Lord to have it done away with. Instead of healing Paul of the “thorn in the flesh,” the Lord told him: “My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” That is when Paul wrote the words of our text that led him to write: “for when I am weak then I am strong.” What does Paul mean? First, we need to see what he does not mean. He does not mean that because Jesus didn’t heal him that he will just accept the fact that he is weak and there is no need to go on in the Lord. There have been many people who made requests of God and God did not do as they wanted; therefore, they just gave up church and gave up trying to overcome. Jesus does not want us to give in to weakness and determine that we can just sit on the sidelines and not do anything for the Lord in our church or community. Second, we see that when Paul accepted his own weakness, he more fully realized that his real strength lay in the Lord. We make a mistake when we try to serve the Lord and do it on our own strength. We do not approach service for the Lord in the spirit of, “I will do the best that I can.” That might be true in sports, for example, but when we seriously want to serve the Lord, we want to do the best that the Lord can help us do. Sometimes we feel like we failed because we didn’t sense that we “won” in our service for the Lord. But it doesn’t always work that way. If we go about our service in a slipshod way, with poor preparation in prayer and study, then we need to give ourselves a swift kick. But if we have depended on the Lord in prayer and study, no matter what the results are, we win. We win because we depended on the strength of the Lord. I have heard preachers say that they thought they had preached their sorriest, but at the time for the invitation the altar was full. I realize that when that has happened in my ministry, that the Lord did a mighty work in spite of my weakness, and I can say with Paul, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” Jesus allows these things to happen to remind us that we are dependent on Him. Third, we need to understand that we do not just depend on the Lord in our work in the church. We depend on the Lord every day of our lives. What a wonderful thing it is when we realize that no matter what our weaknesses, the Lord will make us strong. For example, if we try to keep the Ten Commandments on our own determination, we will break them. Satan loves for us to depend on our own strength when he is tempting us to do things that will ruin our lives and our witness for the Lord. We are no match for him. He was the cause of Paul’s“thorn in the flesh.” Paul did the right thing by taking the matter directly to the Lord. The Lord’s powerful grace has not diminished since Paul’s day. The same power available to Paul is available to us. There are times when we take our weaknesses to the Lord when He will answer our prayer immediately. But there are other times, like in Paul’s case, where Jesus is using our problems to teach us how to depend on Him in spite of the problems. If it is a sin problem, the Lord will forgive. If it some kind of impediment, like a “thorn in the flesh,”He will give us the grace and strength to live beyond it. Take this as a personal reminder and rejoice! Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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September 2021
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