As a Jr. High student, I remember singing a worship song titled, “O Lord, Take my Life”. The song was meaningful to me, yet the last line was confusing: “Father please use my frail life now, for when I am weak, I am strong.” I thought that it should say, “for when I am weak, YOU are strong.” I knew that God could cover my weakness, but the idea of my weakness being a strength just didn’t make sense; until the day that I came across 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. “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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Crist may rest upon me. 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.” Was God somehow saying that my weakness, my failures, my insufficiencies could not only be covered by his grace but could also be a strength as his power is magnified in me? This was a significant formational moment for me!
This week we have been discussing Psalm 124; the cages which snare, the chains that hold us captive, the sin that entangles, the weaknesses that prevent us from being free to live as God has designed. It’s easy to think that if we just try hard enough then we can work our way out of any situation and therefore prove our own worthiness. Yet Psalm 124 opens with, “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,” and concludes in verse 8 with, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Our freedom comes from the Lord.
Tim Keller says, “Those who enter a relationship with God inevitably look back and recognize that God’s grace had sought them out, breaking them open to new realities.” Simply put, it just doesn’t depend on our own human strength. The reality is that in our weakness, God is strong, but it is our weakness itself that makes us strong so that we may be open to the freedom that God offers; the vast array of opportunities that he has in store. When we offer ourselves as an offering, surrender to God’s ability to go exceedingly, abundantly beyond what we could ask or imagine, we will find freedom and God will be glorified.
Lynette Fuson
Director of Care & Counseling