Weakness vs Strength

“And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee:

for my strength is made perfect in weakness”   (KJV)

I read an interesting comment in the Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary concerning the connection between our weaknesses and God’s strength.  It said that “The Lord has more need of our weakness than of our strength: our strength is often His rival; our weakness His servant, drawing on His resources, and showing forth His glory.  Man’s extremity (in other words when we are at the end of our own resources, hopes and strength) is God’s opportunity; man’s security is Satan’s opportunity.” (Taken from JFB Commentary on 2Corinthians 12:9)

It would seem that our point of weakness and subsequent yielding our position to the Lord gives Him the opportunity to perform His word.  The Lord’s comments to His prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:12 backs this up as the Lord told him that “I will hasten my word to perform it.” (KJV)

I mentioned yesterday about my revelation from the Lord concerning my dependence upon my wife for many important faucets of my life.  I have to be honest when I say that losing that place of security that I had established in our relationship was rather frightening to me!  The thought of that void brought to mind the picture of me falling into the large hole created by the removal of that foundation.  It was not a very promising prospect for the future.

It reminded me of an older gentleman who used to frequent the professional photography store that I worked at for a few years.  This man was a retired physician who had lost his wife a few months before I met him.  He would come into the store every few days to have restoration prints made of his wife that were taken when they courted and from the early years of their marriage.  This routine went on throughout the first year that I worked there.  He would come in and show us the pictures and then lament, usually in tears, about his wife’s beauty and the things they did as a young couple.  Whenever I would attempt to comfort him and try to help him through his grief (slipping into my Pastor role!) he would become argumentative (and abusive at times) and walk out.

It was clear that he, like me, had established parts of his life's  foundation in his wife.  But unlike me, he was not interested in yielding his weakness over to the grace of God and therefore attain the ability to move on in his life with a new hope and a more secure future.  I can still remember one of the last times that I saw him.  His whole demeanor seemed to echo what was going on inside of him.  I sadly shook my head and watched him as he walked slowly out of the store tightly clutching his photos, wearing a pair of wrinkled trousers, a shirt that looked like it hadn’t been washed in weeks and his hair amuck.  I then caught a final glance as he drove away from the store in his expensive Mercedes that probably hadn’t seen a car wash for at least a year!

His foundation was mistakenly built upon sinking sand.  How about you today?  How strong is your foundation?  Is it built on the unshakable Rock of the GRACE that “is sufficient for thee?”  I know that I sure don’t want to end up like that older customer at the photo shop… and I’m sure that you don’t either.  Yield any weakness over to Him and give Him the opportunity to perform the strength of His word in your life.  Stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”