The Power of God - (Jun. 7-11)
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.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
We think of the power of God as a force of supernatural and unimaginable strength, but what about God’s power as a source of healing and mercy?
God’s power isn’t only for crushing enemies and breaking chains. It’s also meant to help us and recognize that because we have weaknesses we can look to God. If you have a weakness, it isn’t meant for you to punish yourself when you fall, it is meant for you to know that the real strength comes from God, not us.
Paul flips the script on God’s power in 2 Cor. 12, he says I kept telling God, “I keep sinning, the devil put this thorn in my side.“ But God tells him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
What does this mean? It means we don’t fight our weaknesses ourselves, we give them to God. If I have a puzzle I can’t solve, I’ll get frustrated, tired, angry for not being able to solve it. A lot of us live our lives that way, angry, sometimes even at God. Because we can’t do it alone.
Give your weaknesses to God and according to his word, we will see His power like never before.
7-10 Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 MSG
Discussion
Are there battles that you are fighting on your own?