“My grace is always more than enough for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
Weakness here is Strongs#769, which is the Greek word astheneia. It means having a disability, handicap or frailty that causes one to become dependent and deprives them of being able to accomplish all they would like to do.
Weakness is meant to break us in our self-sufficiency and open us up to dependency on God. Self-sufficiency is actually a sin. It leads to arrogance and pride as we feel superior to others. Jesus confronts it in Luke 18:9-14 when he tells a parable to those confident in their own righteousness and arrogant about two people that went to pray. One was self-sufficient and arrogant and the other was broken over their sin. He told them that it was the broken that was justified before God.
Self-sufficiency was the sin that resulted in such horrific actions that took place with Christians in Germany under Hitler. Out of a desire for creating a superior race, they murdered everyone in their own country who was weak and dependent. By droves the frail elderly and disabled were thrown in a fiery furnace to burn – literally. This was to test the furnace before the sickening elimination of all the Jews in the country for their deemed weakness.
God breaks us of our self-sufficiency so we can be dependent upon Him. It is in the place of dependency and clinging to the Lord that we are blessed. It is in our brokenness and weakness that we are able to draw our needed help from the Lord.
What makes you feel weak, insufficient and inadequate? I know for myself, I can hate the feeling of being weak and insufficient. When things are difficult and I don’t feel adequate, rather than let it draw me closer to God, sometimes I hide in my pantry and eat while I beat myself up in my head for not being good enough. I want to hit the mark and get everything right. Being insufficient, I hear a voice tell me that I am not enough and never will be enough.
Paul did not feel defeated by his weakness. Rather his weakness, as he realized, was the source of his power. He let his weakness draw Him into God. This dependency resulted in him sensing more deeply Christ living in him rather than draw him away from God in defeat over his inadequacy.
Paul proclaims in 2 Corinthians 9-10, “For when I’m weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me. So I’m not defeated by my weakness, but delighted! For when I feel my weakness and endure mistreatment–when I’m surrounded with troubles on every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ–I am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power.”
Not only did Paul let the disability that he had draw him to Christ, but every difficulty he faced. He fully embraced it and let it take him to deeper places of dependency. Therefore, he did not shy away and try to avoid difficulty at all costs like many do. He trustingly stepped into it while looking to God to sustain him.
David Wilkerson, in God is Faithful writes, “Those who seek to avoid difficulties seldom get the revelation of God’s fullness. They attempt to use faith to exempt themselves from crises, not realizing they are robbing themselves of the great opportunity to find out what is really in them. The day comes when trouble can no longer be avoided, and they cave in, having no proven source of inner strength.” [1]
So often we want to skirt around difficulties, especially when we feel inadequate. In areas of conflict, we avoid rather than dive in. We placate rather than passionately argue points. We use Minnesota nice as a tool and call it unconditional love and acceptance.
What happens in this is that we grow weaker rather than stronger. We rely more heavily on our skills to manipulate and avoid rather than trust God and go through the hard things. We come out on the other side with less passion, less dependency, less of God’s power, and less inner strength.
In a wealthy country that prides itself on independence, self-sufficiency is one of the most significant hinderance to the church and people of God. In 2 Timothy 3:2, it says that it the last days people will put themselves first, love their money, be boastful, proud, scoffing, disrespectful to parents, ungrateful and entitled. The root of this is self sufficiency rather than God dependence.
I know for myself, I struggle with wanting to be self-sufficient. It feels more comfortable to have security outside of God. I feel good about myself when I am performing well and think that I have everything in my life under my control. But then, often when this bears indifference or compromise in my life and I see the fruit from this, I come running back to God for help in brokenness.
In a place of self-sufficiency, we will choose rationalization over true righteousness and fail to separate ourselves (from the world) onto God. As a result, we sometimes can fall into embracing everything in the name of the love and acceptance of Jesus. In Revelation 2:20, Jesus tells the Church in Thyatira that He loved their deeds of love, faith, service and perseverance. But, at the same time, He had this against them: they tolerated false teaching that led people into immorality and idol worship.
Along these lines, I once went to a church that I loved because of their missional heart. They lived out beautifully Matthew 25:40 that says whatever we do for the least, we do onto Him. Most everyone in the church was passionately involved in works of ministry to reach out to the broken, lost and hurting. It was beautiful! God was moving among the church in such power.
In the name of love, they took this a step further and, out of desire to embrace those who were dejected and felt rejected for their same sex love, a leader and a team or some leaders became involved with participating in the gay pride event by leading some music sets. Their heart was to influence those around them with a genuine sense of the gospel rather than the judgmental Christians that were so common – bringing the light and love of the gospel into dark places of hurting and broken people. This was really brave and courageous.
However, then around the same time, a congregation member, who was also part of the GLBT community, was also invited share at church about it being an alternative and okay lifestyle. Then the next week, the expansion of leadership to alternative lifestyles was announced. It became about embracing other’s sin as a means to make them feel welcome and honored over honoring God. People were no longer being called out of sin but called to embrace compromise in the name of love for Jesus.
It is never fruitful to join into what separates one from the Lord in the name of love. We do not want to love people off a cliff. Volunteering at a crisis line for years, one thing I learned very quickly was that, in the name of making a connection with people, it was not loving them to embrace their sin and compromises as a good way to live. Embrace and love people but then, when given the opportunity, help lead them out of places that will keep them in bondage. It is most loving to call people out of what brings them into bondage and bears no genuine fruit in their lives. They may want many things, but leading them in love, means walking in the way of Light. There is only one joy filled and fruitful path on the journey home and it is a highway of holiness.
This was really hard for me to do at the time because I hated conflict. Avoiding conflict felt much more secure. And, I would much prefer to love people where they are at and overlook their sin. But then I once had a dream that I was not helping someone who was stuck but just making them comfortable in their agony. Ultimately, loving them means helping them get freedom by speaking the truth and refusing compromise as a lifestyle.
In another book, Hungry for More of Jesus, David Wilkerson notes about the Israelites when they gave tribute to Assyria from 2 Kings 18:15-16, that they were in compromise to avoid conflict. He noted that they possessed a form of godliness that was without power as they were lukewarm and had a mixture of tradition and sin. [2]
He goes on to note, “This is a picture of compromise and it can be found in God’s Church today: Christians walk in fear and intimidation, accommodate worldliness and are afraid to step out boldly and expose sin for what it is.” [3]
Throughout history, the Israelites would make progress forward and experience powerful moves of God but then they would revert back to sin and compromise. They would begin to make room for the darkness and decide to live along side of it or enter into it rather than enter the struggle to evict it. Before they knew it, it flooded their land, they would get stuck in bondage and then God would have to send another Judge or, later, a new king to set them free.
Josiah is an example of a king who brought revival to Israel. When Josiah found the scroll, he ate it and let it change him. He didn’t see God’s commands as optional or suggestions for life improvement. Rather, he obeyed them out of deep devotion and reverence for God.
Exodus 34:13 says, “You must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.” And Deuteronomy 7:25 says, “You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the Lord your God.”
In 2 Kings 23, after hearing these words, he made a vow before the Lord to follow them with all his heart and soul. He then proceeded to call the priests out of their places of compromise and tear down all the altars of the gods who had overtaken the land.
2 Kings 23:13-17 says, “The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. He smashed the sacred pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and covered the sites with human bones. He even pulled down the altar at Bethel, the high place set up by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. Then he burned the high place, ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole.”
I wrote in my journal, quoting a recent favorite author, about Jonah, a reluctant bringer of revival, “A great revival came when Jonah was willing to walk in authority rather than run with indifference.” Jonah ran from the purposes of God because they made him uncomfortable. In all his compromising and running, he didn’t share God’s heart for His people at all.
Sometimes our compromises are not a running from difficulty but a trying to accommodate. In our self-sufficiency, we try to do all and be all to everyone in our own strength. This author also wrote that the Christian life is about “following our King and His Kingdom rather than accepting Him into our busy lives.”
John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus, went right into confronting of compromise and self sufficiency. He did not placate or accept it but demanded that the people come out of those places and into true righteousness. When the religious leaders heard of John and came out to see him, he did not get all excited and be kind in hopes that they would decide to be baptized mixing together their unrighteousness with righteous actions. Instead, John called the religious leaders at the time a “brood of vipers” who needed to repent.
Coming back to the beginning, John did not accommodate their self-sufficiency. He wanted to see them fully free from their old way of religion so they could genuinely, in brokenness, fully receive Christ. The same with Jesus, He moved right in to confronting pride, self-sufficiency and self-righteousness that was built on a knowledge of the truth but a lack of understanding of it. He did not embrace, placate, be polite or even avoid the Pharisees and Sadducees. Rather He told them the truth to set them free.
We reap what we sow into. When we sow into compromise and accommodation, we will reap indifference. Our hearts become dull and our faith grows weak. When we sow into trust and truth even in the light of resulting difficulty, like Paul, “facing persecution because of my life for Christ,” our faith will be made stronger, our heart’s will grow more passionate and we will reap the power and authority of heaven.
Lord, “for the source of your pleasure is not in my performance or the sacrifices I might offer you. The fountain of your pleasure is found in the sacrifice of my shattered heart before you. You will not despise my tenderness as I humbly bow down at your feet. Because you favor Zion, do what is good for her. Be the protecting wall around Jerusalem. And when we are fully restored, you will rejoice and take delight in every offering of our lives as we bring our sacrifices of righteousness before you in love!”
- Wilkerson, David. God is Faithful. World Challenge, Inc. Chosen Books, Grand Rapids, MI. 2012.
- Wilkerson, David. Hungry for More of Jesus. Chosen Books, Grand Rapids, MI. 1992.
