Grace The Failure Files weakness
Acquainted with Weakness
We live in a society where we love to celebrate strength. We celebrate the strength of man. We celebrate our ability to build or move things physically. We celebrate what we can accomplish as a group. We celebrate our successes. But what about weakness? Can we celebrate weakness? Or must we hide it? It seems that it is our tendency to hide weakness—To tuck it away, to put it under the bed and hope nobody looks there. We hide it in the secret places of our hearts where we only we know where it is. That is, until something happens and our weaknesses is exposed. Then all of a sudden it comes to the light that we, like everyone else, have weaknesses. Yet, why is that such a shock? Why are we so caught off guard at the fact that we have weakness. Is there anyone that doesn’t experience weakness? Or is it just certain weaknesses that we don’t like to see?
Paul, the apostle, gives us insight on the subject. At one point in his ministry, Paul proclaims himself to be one of the greatest apostles. He talked about how qualified he was based on his birthright as a Jew, and his training and study. The talked about works the he had done and even the persecutions he went through. He saw this as qualification to say who he was. Few would argue that point but later he did! Near the end of his life his narrative changed and he called himself the “chief among sinners.” Huh? He went from seeing himself as a highly qualified apostle to seeing himself as the number one sinner. What changed? Paul became acquainted with own glaring weakness. He discovered that despite all his knowledge, experience and revelation, he still had things that he could not overcome.
Paul tells of how he asked the Lord three times to deliver him from a “thorn in his side.” He couldn’t ignore it. He couldn’t beat it. He couldn’t pray it away. He just couldn’t defeat that area in his life. Yet, God says to him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” God tells him, “My unmerited favor is sufficient enough for you make it through. What a mystery! He doesn’t say, ‘Nope. I’m not going to help you with that.’ He doesn’t say, ‘Yes I’ll take it.’ He says, “I am going to give you strength that don’t deserve for this area of your life and that’s going to be enough to get you through it.” What a response. God goes on to say, “My strength is perfected in your weakness.”
Paul comes to revelation of this and says, “I will glory in my weaknesses.” He is essentially saying, I am going to celebrate my weaknesses because in my weakness it becomes very apparent who is actually making it possible for me to do these things. When I show up in my weakness doing things I never could before, there is no question about who is the source. God is glorified in that. We then come to understand how strong He is in relation to our weakness. It’s not just for other people to see but for us. so we can know that it’s God doing this in my life because the truth is, I am weak.
What a great offer. God is willing to give us His strength to help us over come. So, why are we hiding our weaknesses again? In fac, we must become acquainted with weakness. We can’t let weakness be something that we hide away somewhere anymore. We have to know that we have it and know where it is. We have to let it be what it is so God can do what He does–Be perfected in it. We must drag our weaknesses into the light to allow his strength to show up in that spot.
We don’t have to hide anymore. We don’t have to hide our mistakes. I know from experience people don’t always show mercy for mistakes. I know they don’t always exhibit grace but we have a faithful God who does.
So in looking at weakness, see it through the eyes of God’s grace. Look at it through the lens of God’s mercy. Look at in consideration of God’s goodness because guess what? God already knew you had weakness. He is not surprised that you were weak. In fact, he knew it! That’s why He sent help. He knew that we needed it!
So let us glory us in our weaknesses. Let us celebrate grace that is sufficient enough for us and our hardest struggles. Let’s not allow our weaknesses to stop us. Let’s give ourselves over to His process so that God’s strength can be perfected in us.
