Be Prepared to Be Weak

Paul then gives his own testimony in Second Corinthians about this source of divine power. He speaks about a very painful experience where he was tormented by some kind of satanic angel, and he besought God to deliver him from this. And God didn’t. God didn’t answer his prayer that way.

Sometimes people tell me, “My prayers don’t get answered.” And I answer them in return, “Perhaps you’ve forgotten that ‘no’ is also an answer.” God did answer Paul’s prayer, but it was with a “no.” And this is how Paul explains it:

“Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations that were given to Paul—for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself—there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, to keep me from exalting myself.”

Notice the words, “there was given me.” Would you like that kind of a gift? An angel of Satan to make life difficult for you all the time?

Personally, I believe that was the angel that moved around wherever Paul went. In every city, he stirred up trouble, turmoil. He got him thrown in prison, beaten, persecuted, driven out of the city, stoned. That was, I believe personally, the activity of that angel. Paul says, “Concerning this, I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me.” I can understand that. I think I’d pray the same prayer.

But God said to Paul,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

That’s a tremendous revelation. God’s power is only fully revealed in man’s weakness. As long as man has his own strength, as long as man has got it all together, he knows what to do, he’s got the situation under control, there’s no room for God. And God doesn’t get the glory. But when we’ve come to the limit of our own strength and our own wisdom, and we have no more resources, then God can release His wisdom, His strength, through His grace.

So Paul goes on to make a statement that I really find difficult to say “amen” to. I think I’m getting there, but I’m not sure I’ve arrived.

“Most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

I don’t meet many Christians nowadays that are boasting about their weaknesses. I hear a whole lot of preachers that are telling about their strengths and their gifts and their accomplishments. But honestly, people who boast about their weaknesses are pretty hard to find.

Paul goes on with an even more amazing statement:

“Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Would you say that? Would I say that? “I’m well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ’s sake.” Mind you, it all has to be for Christ’s sake. It’s only when we’re in the service of the Lord and doing everything for Him.

Then Paul sums it up in those simple words:

“When I am weak, then I am strong.”

That’s a lesson we all have to learn, sooner or later, and the sooner the better, if we’re really going to experience the power of God released in our lives. He will not release it through human strength, only through human weakness. You see, actually, trusting in our own strength brings a curse. That’s a statement that most Christians have never absorbed. But in Jeremiah 17:5, it says,

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man’”—man includes yourself—“‘who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord.’”

You see, you cannot depend on your own strength and on the Lord at the same time. If you are depending on your own strength, your heart has turned away from the Lord, and you’re under a curse.

God’s grace and mercy is aimed to keep us from that curse. And sometimes He has to do very drastic things to us to do that. Let me sum this all up in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 through 10, about the grace of God. Paul says there,

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

I want to bring out certain truths from that without commenting in detail. First of all, grace begins where human ability ends. As long as you are able, and you can do it by yourself and in your own strength, God’s grace is not released. When you’ve come to the end of your ability, that’s the beginning of God’s grace. Secondly, God’s grace is received only by faith. We cannot earn it. Thirdly, it leaves no room for pride. I’d like to count sometime how many times Paul says in his epistles, “so that no one can boast.” You see, the great enemy of God’s grace is our pride. And finally, all the glory goes to God, not to us. And you see, that’s where the Holy Spirit comes in, because Jesus said,

“When the Holy Spirit comes, He”—the Holy Spirit—“will glorify Me,”

Jesus. He hasn’t come to glorify us. He hasn’t come to make us seem big, or important, or clever, or strong. He’s come to reveal the grace and the power and the wisdom of Jesus in our weaknesses.