HOW TO REGARD OUR WEAKNESSES AND INADEQUACIES

Are you distressed about your various weaknesses, failings, and ailments? I am distressed about mine but not so much anymore. Why not? Because I have learned something about them! Paul had learned from God that his weaknesses are actually his strengths, positives rather than negatives:

·       But he [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

As had Paul, I have found that my weakness - those many things that humble me - are a source of God’s strength and spiritual growth. It has also become God’s gift to me, which I can pass on to others:

·       [God] comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. (2 Corinthians 1:4-5)

I also need His constant corrections to humble me to keep me in His will. There is a great joy and a comfort in this, knowing that I am pleasing Him and walking in His light. Besides, I also become agitated and destabilized (a virtual meltdown) when I doubt that I am in His will. Therefore, He promises to alert us when we are thinking in a way contrary to Him:

·       Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Philippians 3:15-16)

“To what we have attained?” To the awareness of our sinful motives! For example, I just read an essay on “Racism.” Initially, I had been overly impressed by its balance and Biblical fidelity. When I compared it to my own essays, I saw mine as less balanced and often somewhat the product of my anger. Immediately, I felt humbled and perhaps even resented this balanced essay, but I have learned to accept that I need His corrections and to term to Him in prayer. Fortunately, when I humble myself before Him, He quickly restores me to His peace and freedom:

·       Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)

Our Lord could take away all our weaknesses and infirmities in a moment, along with Satan. However, He uses them to teach us to trust in Him for everything:

·       And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

Therefore, we need not worry about our glaring and humbling inadequacies. In Him, they have become our strengths.