Strength of Weakness

As I walked up the long stairway lit with fluorescent light and saw our office manager's shining face, I knew I would need to answer a very normal question I feared.  How are you today?  I had a rough night with very little sleep as my soul was like a ship tossed on the waves of a giant storm.  I answered in the words of Jack Taylor, "I am perfectly weak".  A strange response but very true to the core of my soul, yet in this nakedness of soul I wanted desperately to grab some "religious" or "I'm fine" fig leaf but chose to resist the temptation.  In order to dwell in intimacy we must be willing to be seen, allow others to see what is going on deep inside of us.  As I later asked my family to pray for me because I felt needy and drained the grace of God began to flow into me.  We have so many ways to hide our weakness, it maybe a certain image we portray, being fine, distant or withdrawn, our in control face, the mask of performance, or being in charge so no one sees our insecurity.  I am more and more convinced that being open with our weakness is vitally tied to walking as a beloved son or daughter.  The god of this world, Satan, hates and despises weakness.  You see this in the enemy's delight over Jesus being beaten, insulted, tormented, and crucified.  The enemy hated Jesus weakness and His unwillingness to respond in violence, it was the enemy working through men yielded over to his purposes who mocked, spit in Jesus face, insulted Him, taunted Him to come off the cross, and to fight the way the enemy does with strength.  The god of this world system encourages us constantly through media, popular culture, climbing the corporate ladder, image consciousness, and even the roots of popular culture "survival of the fittest" point to strength.  An orphan mentality despises weakness and will even taunt those who don't seem to pulling their weight, a man walks by a homeless man and says "get a job".  So does God relate to our weakness the way the world relates to our weakness, the kindest response the world will give is pity so does God just pity us when we experience weakness.  Jesus was constantly encountering weak people, people who had been trapped by the bondage of sin, were broken through others sin, or were in a prison they co-created by partnering with sin.  Jesus is God and perfectly displays the nature of God,.  He engaged those who were broken, needy, sick, with open arms and the compassion of the Father that flowed through Him often resulted in the miraculous taking place.  Jesus was not afraid of stepping into the reality of the depth of people's weakness, sin, darkness yet He brought no condemnation or stern looks.  2 Corinthians 12:7-10 are powerful verses on this subject, "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!  Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.  And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."  Many times people miss how to properly steward their weaknesses because we don't see the way God sees, we have a natural view either to fight our weaknesses, fall into despair, or walk around limping calling it victory.  These verses are practical guide on stewarding our weaknesses by realizing in our weaknesses is the very place that God's power is perfected.  I believe that all human models of growth in our lives are going to have holes in them at some level, it is only God's model of transforming people into the image of His Son that is complete not lacking any dimension.  So when we turn to human reasoning for explanation of what we are going through in our current season, it will probably be lacking in wisdom and completeness rather than turning to the One who created us.  May God give you revelation of how to steward weaknesses in your life, so you will in turn share words of hope, wisdom, and breakthrough to those who are struggling with weakness.

His Strength in my weakness,
Bret