Content In Your Weakness

2 Corinthians 12

Have you ever had a moment in your life when you had something you wanted to tell the world about? Something you accomplished? Something you did really good in? We want to boast about it to everybody imaginable!

Everyone needs to know what you have done! We call that pride, and we call that boasting. And when we try to boast about something, what usually happens? Someone calls us out, someone tells us to lay down our pride or something of those sorts.

Usually when we rise to the top and we acknowledge it and let the world know what we do, more often than not, you will go crashing down.

Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” In other words, “pride comes before a fall.” You want to be prideful? Expect to fall to a lowly state.

Paul, when he boasted, he did not boast in the things he accomplished or by how smart he was. You know what he boasted in? He boasted in God! But not even to that extent, he boasted about his weaknesses! Who does that? Who boasts in their failures? No one does! That’s why this is so ‘out of the ordinary’.

But even though Paul boasted in those things, he was put down even more so that his boasting would not turn into his own accomplishments, so he was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass him.

In his suffering, he pleaded with God to take the thorn away. Three times he pleaded with God to take this away from him, but in his affliction God told him something that would forever change the way he handled affliction.

God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Wow! What sweet words to receive from God Himself. “My grace is sufficient in your weakness.” His power made PERFECT in my weakness?? Can I be weak all the time?! I want the power of God to rule and reign in my heart at all times, and His power is made perfect while I am weak? I will now boast in my weaknesses!

This is such a transformation in Paul’s life. He was in pain, he was in agony with this thorn in his flesh, but when he sought God, he became content in his weakness.

How well do you handle affliction in your life? Do you see it as an opportunity for God to glorified in your life? Or do you curse God and want to die?

See it as a chance for you to grow and for you to receive the grace of God in your life and to be content in affliction

Paul goes on to say in verses 9-10, “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.”

When we are weak we are the most strong. Did you know that? How? Because when I am weak, I can no longer do anything in my power, which then leaves all the more room for Christ to dwell in me and to work through me.

Be content in weakness, knowing that God is using you and working through for His glory, for the furtherance of His kingdom. The kingdom that cannot be shaken!

For when I am weak, then I am strong!