2 Corinthians 12.9-10
9 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 of my weaknesses,
so that the power of Christ
may rest upon me.
10 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.
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There is so much in God’s “economy” that is completely antithetical to ours. In our pride, we naturally hide our weaknesses and brokenness by fashioning fig leaves over them in any way we can, be it by flat denial, blame-shifting, exaggerating, or excusing. But the Gospel tells us to do something completely different with our weaknesses: boast in them.
Failure is the path.
Beauty is the destination.
My weaknesses, whether from sin or from other limitations, serve to give me an opportunity to learn to become dependent on God. When I stop hiding my weaknesses, but rather unashamedly make them known to others in ways that are even quite risky to my own ego, my weaknesses become a billboard to others of my trust in God’s sufficiency. “My praise,” my billboard declares, “comes from God and not from man.” My strength comes not from myself or my reputation, but from God’s declaration of who I am in Him. This approach brings the power of God to rest upon me and is even made perfect in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12.9)!
Fear says, “what if.”
Faith says, “even if.”
The Gospel gives me the freedom to embrace my weaknesses, because when I become unashamed of my weaknesses, I become truly content with my identity in Christ alone. His strength becomes what I set my sight and hope upon. My limitations and weaknesses are no longer fuel for my fears, but fuel for my faith. It is as if somehow my weaknesses themselves have even become “born again” as the strength of God within me! The Gospel brings me godly contentment and confidence that I could never muster up in any other way.
Christian contentment is
that sweet, inward, quiet,
gracious frame of spirit,
which freely submits to
and delights in God’s
wise and fatherly choices
in every condition.
-Jeremiah Burroughs, 1599-1646
The Gospel gives me the courage and confidence to boast in my weaknesses in order to glory in God and boldly depend on Him.
Read Again Out Loud and Make it into a Prayer:
2 Corinthians 12.9-10
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Personalize and Read or Pray Aloud:
Psalm 91.1–6
1 He who dwells
in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say to the Lord,
“My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3 For he will deliver you
from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5 You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction
that wastes at noonday.
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Pray Aloud:
Father, I want to see Your Name
lifted above all other names
in ________ life.
I am asking that Your Spirit would be at work,
that Your Kingdom would come
and Your will would be done
in ________ heart and life as it is in heaven.
Would You please give __________ truth
that grabs them, encourages them,
and guides them to trusting in You.
Help me to forgive those
that have sinned against me,
and remind me that You have forgiven me
for all of my own sin against others.
Lead ___________ out of temptation
and towards truth.
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