According to 2 Cor 12 a believer's strength is found in their weakness. Oftentimes, I find that I am ashamed before the Lord for being so feeble and weak in my life choices. The things that I want to do, I don’t seem to do, and yet the things that I don’t want to do are the easiest things to give in to and do. While it is very hard to comprehend why this happens, it is the very place that we must get to before the Lord will step up and assist us in that which we cannot do ourselves.
It is through our adversity that our fleshly and common sense of things are brought to light by the hand of God. But once we see that light, we know that we have seen truth and that is what sets us free. When God shines His light on something that we are struggling to understand, it becomes truth to us and it is at that point that we must decide what we will do with that truth.
When you think about the life of Peter you may see him as a flawed, indecisive weakling who kept disappointing the Lord by his distractions and fears. Yet, in spite of his short comings, Peter chose to go back each time he failed and try it again as he placed his feeble faith in what his heart compelled him to do; trust. It is not easy walking on water and we would be wise not to be so quick to judge Peter for sinking, when he took his eyes off Jesus, the One who was the "truth and way" that was enabling Peter to walk on the water as Jesus was doing.
For like Peter, sometimes the course that Jesus charts for our life is directly into a storm as well. Jesus will meet us there as the storms rage around us and as with Peter, at just the right time, He will reveal Himself to us in that storm, and our joy will deepen as we reach out and trust Him; because we have realized that we are too weak and cannot make it ourselves.
Paul felt weak as well. So much that his weakness became a thorn to him that constantly buffeted him. He even pleaded with the Lord to remove it. His weakness was a lack of humility. God wanted Paul to learn that he could trust Him to help him, in spite of his weakness and learn humility through his struggle with it. Paul had even confessed when he said that his thorn in his flesh was meant to keep him “from becoming conceited” and to give him a more obvious experience of the power of Christ in his own life. So Paul spent his life struggling with his thorn that kept him always going to the Lord for the strength to bear and overcome his weakness day after day.
I too am always learning, that God has ordained in my life, a thorn to buffet me, and through genetics and life-experience, we all are flawed, limited, broken, weak and while we all suffer with different areas of weaknesses, our struggle is the same. God is trying so hard to teach our tough thick hard heads that, it is when we surrender to Him and admit that we cannot do it, that our flesh is rendered weak enough for God to take control and give me the strength I need.
There is a great lesson to be learned by Paul asking that God would take his weakness away in 2 Cor 12, and God telling him no. It means that sooner or later, maybe we should stop praying against the weakness and accept it as God’s design for whatever character that God is trying to build in us and for the glory of Christ in us. We must all decide for ourselves if we are to bear the burdens of our weaknesses until they teach us the lessons that we must learn.
I am learning that God is all sufficient for my every need, but if I am to call Him, “Lord, Lord”, then I must do that, which He tells me to do. Though I am flawed and weak, I have found Him to be a strong tower to which He never fails!
Hold Fast,
-Bren
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