Weakness vs. Strength

Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain,

so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great

revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a

messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me…

…2 Corinthians 12:6-10

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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I

am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:6-10

1. God loves us and knows how to protect us.

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there

was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

2 Corinthians 12:7

"Your weakness is not in the way of what God will do – it’s your delusions of strength that will stop you.”

Paul Tripp

"The law of the Christian life is a paradox. It is made up of seeming contradictions. All its teachings are contrary to the common opinions of man. According to this law, giving is getting; scattering is gaining; holding is losing; having nothing is possessing all things; dying is living. It is he who is weak who is strong… Happiness is found when it is no longer sought; the clearest sight is of the

invisible; (and) things which are not bring to naught things which are."

Henry Clay Trumbull

How is God loving you right now?

What he is doing in your life is very much connected to his love for you and his desire to develop you into the

image of his son Jesus.

My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the

Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as

discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined

(and everyone undergoes discipline) then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Hebrews 12:5-8

Joni Eareckson Tada said, “Sometimes God allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves.”

"Achilles doesn’t die in Homer’s story but Greek legend says that he later suffered a mortal wound to the back of

his foot. The ‘Achilles’ heel’, as it’s called today, has become one of the most popular idioms in Western

culture. It refers to a person’s point of weakness leading to their downfall. God’s wisdom gives us another picture.

Believers in Jesus don’t have an Achilles’ heel — we are an Achilles’ heel.”

John Piper

God in his wisdom permits what he could keep from us through his power.

"I’m a hazard to myself. Don’t let me get me."

- Pink

2. The pressure comes to create dependence on God and his grace.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient

for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

2 Corinthians 12:8-9

We can’t receive the sufficiency of God’s grace until we know our own insufficiency. All the

principles of the kingdom of God are activated by weakness/humility.

"Paul was desperate in his desire to find relief from this burden, but there are two ways of relief. It can come by removing the load or by strengthening the shoulder that bears the load. Instead of taking away the thorn, God strengthened Paul under it, and God would show His

strength through Paul’s apparent weakness."

David Guzik

Our normal response to pressure is, "Get me out of this Lord." So often, our Father allows us to experience

pressure to test us, so that we would cling to and depend on Him.

When we embrace weakness, it means we’ve looked at ourselves long enough to know we can’t make it without

looking to Another. Embracing weakness means we know we need God very badly.

Maturity in Christ is measured not by our independence from God, but our dependence upon him. Some see God as a parent that we outgrow, like we did when we left home. An independent spirit in us will make us run

from the season of training and development. It causes us to resist the expression of God’s authority in our lives

and develop an unteachable spirit.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered, and once made perfect, he became

the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

Hebrews 5:8-9

"God does not work through those who think they are the pillars of the church. He works through weakness. There

was a king in the Old Testament, Uzziah by name, of whom it was said, ‘…he was marvelously helped until he

was strong . . .’ but when weakness, personal insufficiency, and utter inability are consciously felt, realized, and known, then the power of God and His

purpose for the thorn have been fulfilled. When I see a young preacher begin to taste success, my heart

trembles for him."

Alan Redpath

“The illusion of strength and independence actually leaves someone in a weaker place. There is nothing

more hindering to the work of God than the uplifted and proud Christian.”

G.C. Morgan

God does not need your strength: he has more than enough of power of his own. He asks your weakness: he has none of that himself, and he is longing, therefore, to take your weakness, and use it as the instrument in his own mighty hand. Will you not yield your weakness to

him, and receive his strength?

C. Spurgeon

3. The pressure teaches us to embrace our weaknesses.

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

That is why, for Christ sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For

when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

And today, though I am the anointed king, I am weak.

2 Samuel 3:39

Paul had the thorn in the flesh for fourteen years at the time of the writing of this epistle. He had embraced a

lifestyle of weakness and as a result he knew the power of God in his life.

God deliberately permitted debilitating circumstances into Paul’s life so he would be in constant, total dependence

on God’s grace and God’s strength.

Paul is being falsely accused by false Apostles who are leading his flock away from him. His ministry is being attacked. All the unjust accusations he experiences in

this season is countered by the grace that God gives to him.

When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.

Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.

2 Corinthians 4:12-13

I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of

the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

I Corinthians 2:3-5

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13

For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by

God's power we will live with him to serve you.

2 Corinthians 13:4