Don't feel shortchanged by your weaknesses. Celebrate God's purposes in each one. Invite that weakness you’re trying to escape from and press it up against the power of Christ.
It seems God is always asking us to do something contrary to human nature.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and I bet you’d agree. Our human nature tells us to kick back and forget it all, while God tells us to persevere through it all. Our natural inclination is to complain, while God insists that we graciously accept. Human nature tells us to keep a record of other people’s wrongs, but God warns us; it’s not loving to hold grudges or remember people’s offenses. We could go on, listing the many things that are contrary to God’s ways. He even says, “My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts.” Like, for instance, when it comes to our weakness, whether emotional, social, or physical. Christians often try to forget their weakness, but God wants us to remember it and to feel it deeply. We want to subdue and free ourselves from weakness, but God wants us to rest and even rejoice in it. Weakness makes most Christians feel sad and shortchanged, but God wants us to say, "I am glad to boast about my weakness, so that the power of Christ can work through me."
When it comes to this wheelchair that I’ve been sitting in for so many years, it took a long time for me to even understand what it meant to boast in my weakness. Why would I delight in something that was so contrary to human nature? Nobody rejoices in their weakness, let alone their suffering! So… It took time and learning how to trust in God before I could understand God’s ways. And I’ll confess, even after all these years of dealing with one weakness after the next, it never becomes easy to accept. It never feels natural to have someone do for me what I would so much rather do for myself. But over time, I have learned to praise God for every weakness that keeps me leaning into and pressing up against the power of Jesus Christ who loved me and gave himself for me.
And so, is there a weakness in your life that you’d rather avoid, forget about? Escape from? Is there a weakness you keep hiding, one that you dare not even share with a good friend? Maybe a weakness that makes you feel ashamed, second-class, or not worthy? I’m sure there is. We all have weaknesses, and some are more obvious than others. But I want you to know God’s ways with weakness. Psalm 103 says that “he made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel.” God wants to make known his ways to you, especially concerning weakness so that you will lean into and press up against the power and the grace of Jesus who loved you and gave himself for you.
Andrew Murray observed that "the Christian thinks his weakness is his greatest hindrance in his life and service to God, but God tells us that it's the secret of strength and success. It is our weakness, happily accepted and continually realized, that gives us our claim and access to the power of him who has said, “my strength is made perfect in weakness.” So don't feel shortchanged by your weaknesses. Join me in celebrating God's purposes in each one. And let’s do it today. Think of that certain weakness in your life that troubles you most, the one that’s hard to accept. Together, let’s invite that weakness [like I’m inviting mine right now] and let’s have it press us up against the power of Christ. It’s the best way to ignore your old human ways and celebrate God’s way.
© Joni and Friends