Think about what makes a person strong? Independence, a self-made person, strong-minded, financially secure? Top of their “field,” athletically, academically smart? Who or what is it that makes us say what we value as strength in someone?

I once had a dear friend call me and in our conversation about Paul and the painful “thorn,” he remarked in a quiet reverential tone toward Paul. “Paul was a tough old dude.” I said to him, “No, he wasn’t!” Paul tells us his strength was the realization of how weak he was, how dependent he was and where his true strength came from. When the pain came he turned to the Person, the Lord Jesus to speak to Him about it. Think about it, when tough times come, where do you or I turn to or whom do we turn to?

Paul was not a “strong man,” he was a DEPENDENT man, whose strength came through relying on the LORD Jesus.

Being weakened enough from self-sufficiency is often the beginning of deeper intimacy with the Lord Jesus and experiencing and manifesting His power through weakness. Are you weak enough for His power? Am I?

Are you clinging on to the “if it’s got to be, it’s up to me” attitude, or are you realizing your weakness is God’s opportunity to meet you and display Himself to and through you? There is no such thing as being too “weak” to be used by God, but there is such a thing as being too “strong” in your own sufficiency, to be used by Him!

Self-sufficiency is opposed to Christ’s sufficiency. As its “root” is pride. and God is opposed to the proud! Are you too strong to be used by God? Am I?

Are you weak enough for God to use you?

What do you view as your greatest strength? Mature Christians are often Christians who have suffered much and who are weak enough to be dependent upon the LORD JESUS. Suffering does NOT produce spiritual maturity, but submission to Him in it is a means to spiritually maturing. -{Read James 1:2-4; Romans 5:3-4}. Maturing Christians- as it is not instantaneous, but a process… grow in DEPENDENCE upon the LORD, living by faith in Him through clinging to and learning to apply His Word, and His promises, and trusting in His Person.

Spiritual maturity ultimately comes through the Spirit of God working “IN” the believer through His Word, but Scripture teaches that He uses trials and sufferings as James 1:2-3 and Romans 5:3-4 in the maturing of His people. Take time to read both passages.

Spiritual “strength” is often shaped, formed, developed through the furnace of affliction, and manifested through “weak” individuals. By weak I mean, weakened as a progression in their lives from self-sufficiency to God’s dependency. Paul illustrates this from his own life and that of his companions when he wrote, “In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.”-{2 Cor 1:9- NLT}

Taking your weakness to Jesus is your greatest strength. “When I am weak then I am strong!”

God is working “IN You,” as Phil 2:13 says. conforming you to the image of HIS dear Son.-{Please Read Rom 8:28-29}.

Be encouraged!

 

  •  Don’t seek to be strong, seek to be dependent!