And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am made strong.   2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NKJV.

Most of us were never taught to be weak. We are taught to be self-sufficient and to learn to live out on our own. But weakness isn’t something that is usually taught to us either by our parents or in our school system. We are taught to be strong.

We are taught to think for ourselves and be problem solvers. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s bad to teach children to be independent and to think on their feet. But we must also remember Proverbs 3:5-6, which tells us to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not rely on our own understanding. It tells us to acknowledge Him in all we do, and He will guide us on the right paths.

In everything we do, we should pray and acknowledge God and do our best to do it in a way that pleases Him. When we do this, it helps to form a habit of trusting in God and realizing that His ways are better than our ways.

In our Scripture passage today, Paul talks of why it is good to be weak. When God told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” This means that when we acknowledge the fact that we need God’s help and we turn a problem over to Him, His strength is perfected. When we let our cares go and give our troubles over to God, then He can do His best work. He’s not going to play tug of war with us.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I say that I am giving a problem over to God, but then I plot and ponder ways I can fix it. The problem still plagues me because I can’t figure out the solution. The best solution is to give it over to God and trust in Him to work it out for my good and His glory (Romans 8:28-31).

If every good thing comes from God, as we learn in James 1:17, then we know our strength comes from the Lord. Philippians 4:13 tells us we can do all things through Christ, who gives us strength. If God calls us to do something, we can be assured He will strengthen us and equip us to do it. We must also be mindful that there are times when God simply wants us to sit down and shut up. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!

Sometimes our job is to simply wait while God works. When we do this, we must resist the temptation to jump in and do what we think we can do. This may only make things worse. I am telling you this from personal experience.

We must humble ourselves to accept weakness. Humility allows us to rejoice in our weaknesses, trusting that when we are weak, He will make us strong. Remember, His power is perfected in our weakness.

Have a great day!