November 1st, 2019

“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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” -2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Our culture does not embrace weakness. It seems that this trait will make you appear to be someone who cannot handle life’s problems. Our society thinks that people will walk all over you if you are weak. Where as God says it is in our weakness He will be glorified. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Weakness keeps us from boasting. God’s desire for us is to empty ourselves of pride. Weakness keeps us depending on God. Our insufficiencies keep us at the throne of Grace. “The more we are able to acknowledge our weakness, the greater our opportunity to experience God’s power in our lives.” (Kyle Idleman in the book, Grace is Greater.)
The strategy Jesus used to select His disciples shows that the power of God is best when people he chose were weak. He did not choose the influential and most powerful people of the day for spreading the gospel. The disciples were not the spiritual elite. They were uneducated, common, and from the low class of that time. Seven of the apostles were fisherman, one who wanted to overthrow Rome, a tax collector, who the Jews thought was a traitor, and the rest were tradesman of the time. He chose them because His power was to be made perfect in their weakness so that the outcome of their efforts would be credited to HIM and not to the individuals. They received the best seminary education possible by the master.
Jesus chose them because the power of the Holy Spirit will be seen in their service. They were willing to be open vessels for Jesus to work through. They changed the world. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 says, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak
only together with us would they be made perfect.” This exemplifies God’s power by the way men and women of faith have endured. Now they are an encouragement to us in our daily walk.
The ultimate purpose of God in our weakness is to glorify the kind of power that moved Christ to the cross and kept Him there until the work of love was done.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:23-25, “but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” It is the wisdom of God.
We may not understand why we have weakness, but we know God can use it for His glory and our reward is eternity with Him and share HIS GLORY.
Hope you are looking forward to Thanksgiving and to being grateful for our family in Christ.
In Christ’s steps,
Pastor Shaker
 

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