Strength in Weakness
Today I would like to talk about God’s strength in our weaknesses. When Christ was hanging on the cross, many who saw Him thought that He was weak. He was in a very vulnerable position but even in the midst of this trial His eyes remained focused on the Father. This was the height of His surrender, no matter the cost.
Fear in Weakness
We all have weaknesses and shortcomings. Think of one that you may be facing in your life currently. How does it make you feel and respond? Usually, people tend to feel more on the terrible side of the spectrum. It’s possible that they become intimidated, feel unworthy, incapable, incompetent, and innumerous ways that reflect symptoms of insecurity and low self esteem. Then because of their weaknesses and how they feel about them, they respond accordingly most likely out of fear, especially fear of failure. Yet most often then not, the idea of failure is based on perception when hoped outcomes are not seen or expectations are not met. In response, one may try to conceal the product of failure.
They may also try to conceal any self characteristics or actions that they believe are responsible for this. This is usually brought out of shame, so that even though they try to improve upon the weakness, the shame still holds them back, as they start believing things like their value is hinged on their success or ability not to “fail” or not to have the weakness anymore. As a result, who they are and what they do may become products of fear rather than a product of a healthy sense of self and identity. They may decide not to live outside of the box that they feel their vulnerabilities and inadequacies create for them. Eventually, this inevitably stunts their growth as a person as they will only ever live within their comfort zones, always fighting to overcome weakness while remaining fearful.
There is no way to overcome weakness in fear, no matter whether we try to improve ourselves by it, because we will always be overshadowed by the feeling that we are not enough. In truth, that is correct. In it of ourselves we are not enough. God created us to be carriers of His glory, and to have Him dwell within us and us in Him so that we can find fulfillment in Him. That’s how much He loves and values us despite our weaknesses. Ultimately, His perfect love casts out all fear.
When we realize how much we are loved, our focus becomes no longer on how well we perform, but about our relationship with Him. It was never His intention for us to be created with weakness because we were only ever supposed to live, move, and have our being in Him. In Him we are satisfied, in Him we have meaning and purpose in life. In Him we live, move, and have our being (Acts 17:28) and through Him, we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength (Philippians 4:13).
Response to God
Therefore, we are not victims to anyone or anything not even to weakness. Instead of reacting in fear from weakness God has given us access to take hold of His strength regardless of any circumstance that we might be facing. It is where we choose to shift our attention that will determine our response.
First and foremost, we should always focus on who God is instead of focusing on ourselves and believing lies about our identity. That is what the enemy is after, our identity. If he can keep us from knowing who we are in Christ, he knows we will always be stunted. But he does not determine that, we do. It’s our choice to believe whomever and whatever and the only way that we can come into alignment with what God believes about us is if we first believe on who He says that He is. The Word of God reveals God’s nature in every page by revelation the Holy Spirit imparts. When you start acknowledging and accepting who God is through His Word, He will start revealing Himself in us and how He sees us and has called us to be. In Him we find our identity, not in our weakness, and firstly we should respond by focusing on who He is.
In our weakness we should also respond with joy. Paul even is known to say that he rejoices in weakness.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials
James 1:2-4
As human beings living in this world, falling into various trials is inevitable, because the world itself is in a fallen state and has been shrouded in weakness ever since the fall of mankind. Rejoicing in trial is not glorifying the idea, and stooping to remain in weakness, as if a martyr, but rather because of the truth that we are not of this world, do not have to be subjugated to a fallen state, and that we are overcomers. We rejoice knowing that God has given us power and authority over trials, weaknesses, and temptation, not because we wrestle against flesh and blood,
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12
We can rejoice in the Lord because He has given us victory over the enemy and every obstacle in our lives that we have and are yet to face. When we rejoice, it takes us out of a victim mentality into absolute confidence that we are already on the winning side.
This particular weakness that they faced and that mankind has faced ever since the fall is the weakness of sin. Once Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden, mankind came into a fallen state and their relationship with God was severed. However after Christ came and broke the curse of sin,
There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:1
We are meant to overcome sin and when it enters through temptation, think of the Lord’s prayer how it focuses on God first and then ends with the prayer to
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Matthew 6:13
Ultimately, our focus should be on God instead of ourselves. When we give glory to Him and promote His will instead of our own on a daily basis, our weaknesses will diminish in our eyes and won’t become so daunting.
So how about sickness? This is also a weakness pervading people of God today. Again, we should always focus on God over the problem, knowing that we are already healed by His stripes in the Spirit realm. Our faith should aim to move boundaries in the Spirit realm, even though it may have something to do with something in the natural. In the Word of God it says that
whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever we lose on earth will be loosed in heaven
Matthew 18:18
Even though there may be a weakness manifesting in the natural through an ailment of our physical bodies, we can be confident that we are spiritually backed up by heaven’s army and that
No weapon formed against us shall prosper.
Isaiah 54:17
Even though there may be a physical affliction, know that the weakness is not with you, but that it’s with the enemy trying to pin his loss and defeat on you. But here is the deal, we have already won through the blood of Jesus Christ. We do not identify with the weakness of the enemy but in the strength of Christ, taking upon himself our weakness, so that we may overcome our weakness in Him because
by His stripes, we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5
When we have weaknesses God is our strength, and for this we can rejoice. However, that is not to say that we should let our guards down. We should remain prayerful and diligently be led by the Spirit instead of the flesh. 2 Corinthians reads,
we are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is that you may be fully restored.
2 Corinthians 13:9
It’s not enough to rejoice, we should also be prayerful and believe for full restoration from weaknesses. David said,
but who can discern their own error? Forgive my hidden faults, keep your servant from willful sins, let them not rule over me, then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
Psalm 19:12
After Christ sent us His Holy Spirit (see more here), He empowered us to live godly lives and take on His identity. We don’t have to feel overcome by sin or sickness, instead we are overcomers because Christ already took our weaknesses and transgressions upon Himself as he hung on the cross. We need to keep our focus on Him and the sacrifice that He made for us so that regardless of our response we can respond in joy. In the next post, we will discuss how this will help us walk more boldly and confidently walk in trust, faith, and obedience.
