After a long week of court appearances, client meetings, testy negotiations with other attorneys, and—dealing with the regular hardships of life, I get to the place where I throw my hands up in the air and tell God, “I give up, You are in charge now!” This is not a bad place to be—in fact, it is nearly exactly where I need to be. It reminds me of the words of Paul the Apostle:
“For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
(2 Corinthians 12:10)
My times of weakness place me exactly where I should ALWAYS be—in desperate need for God!
It doesn’t matter how old or young, rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy we are—we ALL face overwhelming situations. We think the worst won’t happen to us. It does. We think we’re strong enough. We’re not. The sooner we learn to surrender everything to God, the faster we gain real strength—HIS strength.
Paul wrestled with weaknesses too! This was the exchange between him and Jesus when Paul PLEADED with God to remove his weakness:
Jesus: “My grace is sufficient for you, for MY POWER is made perfect in WEAKNESS.”
Paul: “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.”
(2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
The circumstances that batter us are opportunities to allow the POWER of GOD to work through us. Hard times often reveal our greatest weaknesses and give us remarkable opportunities to practice making God our greatest strength.
Without a desperate sense of weakness, we tend to operate as if we don’t need God and—we miss the greatest opportunities to experience His strength.
Our weaknesses are an avenue of the blessings of God’s strength. Our weaknesses teach us who we really are—frail humans in desperate need of God. We HAVE nothing without Him. He is life. He is THE truth and THE light. Without Him nothing exists.
Whatever is casting a shadow over your life…give it to God. Don’t take it back. Give it to Him 50 times a day if you need to! Yield yourself 100% to God—your time, resources, and love—and you will find His strength replacing your weakness.
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!
Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!
Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!”
1 Chronicles 16:8-11
We would love to hear your thoughts about this devotional. Did God speak to you or challenge your daily walk with him? Or is there a topic that you would like Kimberly to cover or expound on? Please share with us in the comments below.
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5 Responses
Yes Kimberly,
I would like to hear your take on why God allows some of us to suffer major physical pain with a disorder doctors can’t help or understand or treat?? Why he gives some of us tremendous pain and weakness and all we do is suffer for what?? Can you enlighten me please? The standard answer is God doesn’t give you more than you can handle, well that wrong, seriously, wrong.
Thank you God bless you,
I’m so sorry to hear about your suffering. It is a big question and deserves a big and through answer. I found great comfort and wisdom in Tim Keller’s book Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering.” Suffering is unfortunately a part of this fallen world and we all experience it, but in my experience I’d much rather walk through it WITH God than WITHOUT Him. Someday He will wipe away all our tears! Much prayer being sent your way!
I am struggling with the tragic loss of my 20 yr old daughter, I feel pain from the loss and can’t move on, I do lean on God but it makes it so hard with out her with me I miss her so much why couldn’t she be saved? I have many questions but the biggest one is why my baby
thank you for the words of encouragement. would like advice and wisdom on a relationship to reconcile and to get back what we lost. for grace and mercy to soften hearts. thank you have a blessed day.
Jason, the closer we are to God, the more we have mercy, grace and love like He does. Blessings!