In My Weakness..

Weaknesses.
We all have them.
But most of us emphasize, exaggerate, and sometimes even try to sell ourselves with our strengths while hiding, denying, or trying to compensate for our weaknesses.
If we're honest with ourselves, we're probably pretty fearful of our weaknesses being exposed.
But what if...
What if they weren't just something we tried to hide because we thought that they would expose something about us that would make people not accept us for who we "really" are.
What if they were something we were actually supposed to embrace?
What if we have weaknesses for a reason?

"But He 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. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." - 2nd corinthians 12:9-10

Sometimes I can think "how could God use me, I'm so messed up."
But are my weaknesses above His power to use me? I think not. 

I must remember that He uses even my weakness for His glory.
So our weaknesses then can be embraced, they must be embraced, for they actually become opportunities for God to demonstrate His power and goodness through us.
In the letting go of our pride and admitting our weakness, our dependence makes room for God to come in and be what we couldn't be on our own.

In order to fully embrace God's grace for us, and Jesus' death on the cross, we must fully embrace our fallenness, our weakness, our need for a savior.
Like I wrote about in my "Liberating Love" post, our time on this earth is spent in a sanctification process. If we were perfect now, or could attain perfection in this lifetime, we wouldn't need the death of our Lord and King. We wouldn't need a savior.
And so we take away from the work of Christ if we don't let Him be what we can't be. He came to be everything we couldn't be and do everything we couldn't do.
We are all broken pieces waiting to be put back together by the only One who knows what we were meant to look like.
And so we must acknowledge our weakness with the next step of admitting our dependence, showing our trust in Him as our Redeemer.

Embracing weakness is also seriously instrumental for our growth.

When we pray and ask for change in our hearts and to be rid of a weakness like say selfishness for example, God doesn't just snap His fingers and make us selfless. He gives us a circumstance with the opportunity to choose to be selfless. And so you then ask "Well if I wasn't selfless before, how am I supposed to be selfless now if all I've been given is just another opportunity for me to be what I know will be selfish?" To which I would say "On your own, yes this is true"

The answer I think is this: first of all we must pray for our eyes to be open to the gift of a second chance. In that moment then, when we are aware of our choice to choose others or ourselves, we must pray and trust Him to be what we can't be. We must acknowledge our need of a strength not our own. What then was once just His selflessness we realize, has actually become ours too and we've just then taken on more of likeness of Christ. We've let the Redeemer give us the strength to be something we couldn't be before without Him. How beautiful, the fact that He alone gives us the strength to live the life He calls us to live!

"The promises of God give what His commands demand" - Martin Luther

And so we can only boast in Him.

"It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." - 1st Corinthians 1:30

So what is it in your life that you are holding onto, and by doing so, with-holding from yourself the grace that is offered to cover that weakness?

I think it's time to give it up and let Him be in you what you can't be. Let Him be the Redeemer.

Let Him in

Let Him in

Let Him in

Father, grant me grace in my weakness to do Your will but also strength to accept Your sufficient grace in my weaknesses...