WEAKNESS AND POWER

Most of my life I think I've wanted to be strong so I can be strong for the Lord. In my mind, I've wanted to feel strong and capable and complete in myself, and also to have those things I thought I've needed in my life, before I actually do something for the Lord. In the meantime however, the Lord has prevented me from having some of those things, and even made me feel extremely weak and incapable in myself. It is in that place that I've felt He's wanted to, and actually has, used me to serve Him and serve others (as small, incomplete and imperfect as that service has been). While I was overseas recently, I was blessed to have a word from someone who said to me, "His strength is made perfect in weakness." When I was younger, I would've thought that this meant, "He is most powerful in me when I at my weakest." But since then I've learnt differently. God's power does not change in any way- He is always as powerful as He's always been. What God meant when He said to Paul (who knew what it was to be weak- even having a thorn from God to ensure he did!), "My strength is made perfect in weakness," was that we are perfectly able to be used when we are weak, because we will be humble in such a place. That is the 'perfection'; it is the moral humbling of ourselves which God allows to happen to us, as we are forced to see ourselves for just how weak and insufficient we truly are. That is why Paul, when Paul got this answer from God, said, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (2 Cor 12v9). Paul realised that while God had made him spiritually whole in the sense that, just like the Word says, we have been given all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1v3), conversely in a practical sense God wanted Him in a place of trial and weakness so that he could continue to be used by God. If God didn't have us in a continual place of weakness, trial and seeming insufficiency, we would never be able to be used by Him, because we would quickly become proud, thinking that the power and Godly influence that comes from us is in some way to do with us or because of something that we are. Paul even DELIGHTED in weaknesses. Think about that for a second. He didn't wish his weaknesses would go away, and he didn't say that he was incomplete and wounded because of them (although he must've felt this way in the natural), rather he delighted in them because of what it meant that God would be able to do through him- 2 Cor 12v10 'That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.' While personally I'm not at this stage yet (I'd still rather not have thorns and trials), I understand why Paul himself could say this, and so I am encouraged by why he delighted in them, and so want to make this one of the aims of my life as well. Initially Paul PLEADED with the Lord 3 times for the Lord to take his thorn which produced his weakness, away from him, but then he realised that not only would it have been detrimental for his spiritual life, but it would've also made him unusable to the Lord. So he actually ended up BOASTING about those things that made him weak, and DELIGHTING in weaknesses and trials. Such was the greatness of Paul's desire that ONLY Christ would be glorified and revealed in and through his life, and that ONLY Christ would be seen through the power which God allowed to come through his life, that he was willing to be extremely weak and undergo extreme trials for His sake. 

Do not be someone who continually pleads with the Lord to be free from trials, for such a person is very spiritually immature and does not understand the nature of how Christ works in His people and how he fits them for service. Do not be someone who believes that they need something they don't already have to serve Him, for God has already given us EVERYTHING we need for LIFE and GODLINESS (2 Peter 1v3, and so no matter what weakness may beset us, we are always equipped and ready to do what God has called us to do in whatever season of life we are in. Weaknesses are not given to us to hold us back and stop us from service, but they are given so that we may be useful to Him now, and usually more useful to Him in the future. Do we, like Paul, want revelation? Do we want to see the power of God work through us? Do we desire to be very effectual for him and to greatly benefit others by the fruit and service of our lives? Then expect for the Lord to allow weakness in our lives, and don't expect it to go away any time soon, or even ever in many cases. Expect trials, weakness, sickness, rejection from others, loss, persecution and above all expect to see your own great insufficiency- not so that we'll despair and throw in the towel, but so that we shall continually be humbled, and so that we shall decrease, but He shall increase. If we want to be used by the Lord, expect that we experience what Christ did, for no one is above their master in this, and He was known as the suffering servant.