Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:8-10)
“I take pleasure in my weaknesses” – now there’s something you don’t hear every day… But perhaps we need to look at this from another perspective:
Let’s say you are watching a small child – a boy, 4 years of age. This child is playing in the park with his toy truck, and is pushing it down a make-believe road. He comes upon a large rock that is in the way of his ‘road’, and tries to push it out of his way. He is just a small child, and although he uses all his strength, the rock won’t budge.
The little boy might get frustrated and give up. After all, no matter how hard he tries, his strength is not sufficient to move this large rock – it’s impossible!
You know that you can move the rock for the boy, but before you can help him, he must stop trying and get out of the way. While he continues only in his strength, the rock will not budge, and you can’t get in position to do it for him either.
The boy and the rock is an analogy of us trying to use our own strength to move obstacles that are too large for us – in this case, the object may be our fleshly desires or some other hang-up that is preventing us from moving forward in our walk with Christ. We need to accept that we cannot move the immovable, and get out of the way!
The great power that God makes available to us when we rely on Him makes it clear just how weak we truly are. But we can rejoice in our weakness, as long as we remember to get out of the way and let the Mighty One take over!
#LoveMatters