Strength in Weakness

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 NIV

9 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. 10 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.

Have you ever felt inadequate?

Like you just never measured up to the people around you?

Maybe you feel like your not as good of a sports player than other people

Maybe you feel like your not as gifted at academics as other people around you are

Maybe you feel like you are lesser than others because your situation at home isn’t “normal”, wether it be adoption, shared custody, the result of divorce, a sibling or relative who is not like the rest of the people around you.

Weakness is powerful

Weakness is a powerful mental tool that can easily takeover people’s lives if they let it. I remember growing up and watching those cheesy movies where the dorky kid would muster up enough strength and courage to beat the bully who outmatched him in every way. I remember in those cheesy dorky movies rooting for and watching the weaker one of the two win in the end and feeling super inspired!

That’s powerful, but far too often I believe that we as humans choose to look at the negative aspects of ourselves more so than the courageous aspects.

Actually, it makes sense to me: In Genesis 3 we see the fall of humanity. We see sin enter the world. We see the impact of sin on humans even to this day.

The sin in the Garden of Eden is: The sin of self idolatry. We wanted to put ourselves on the same level as God. We wanted to be equal to the almighty. But since we are mere human beings there is no way we can be on the same level as God.

The creation is never as good as the creator. For example:

Without Elon Musk we wouldn’t have Tesla

Without Bill Gates we wouldn’t have Microsoft

Without Truett Cathy we wouldn’t have Chick-Fil-A

These companies and restaurants might be multi-million dollar creations, but none of them would be here had they not been created. The success of the creation directly influences the success of the creator.

We might be priceless, but we are no where near perfect, in the same way Tesla and Microsoft have “bugs” and “glitches,” or Chick-Fil-A (God forbid) might have a broken ice cream machine they are also no where near as perfect as we make them out to be sometimes.

We might be made in his image, a reflection of God, but that doesn’t mean we were made equal to him in our abilities. We are limited in our abilities and because of sin, and much of our time is devoted to looking at our inabilities.

Having inabilities must mean we need to be better.

Because we are sinful human beings, we are hardwired to be consumed by fixing out inabilities on our own. We see them as weaknesses. We see the sin in our lives as weaknesses, we see our struggles as weaknesses. We see people who are successful by the worlds metrics (i.e: they have lots of money, they married the right person, they are high ranking, the status they have is exceedingly massive) as people we need to strive to be like. This leads to us recognizing our own inadequacies even easier.

What is our natural response? I think we do one of two things in our society:

Fix it…

Give up on it…

People who try to fix it themselves end up chasing this life of perfection only to fall short every time because of their sinful nature. People who give up tend to give in to every temptation under the sun because they are looking for anything to satisfy the inadequacies in their own heart.

But here is the Good News (Gospel)

God says in your weakness, his power is made perfect. (2 Cor 12:9)

2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

9 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.

What does it mean when the Scripture says that God’s power was made “Perfect” in our weakness?

When the Bible says “God’s power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9), it doesn’t mean God’s power was broken and then fixed. God’s power has always been perfect. What it means is that His power shows up the clearest when we don’t have enough on our own.

Think of it like this: if you’re carrying a backpack that’s super light, no one cares if a friend helps you—it doesn’t show their strength. But if your backpack is so heavy you can’t even lift it, and your friend picks it up with one hand, everyone sees how strong they really are.

That’s what it means for God’s power to be “made perfect.” In our weakness—when we’ve hit the end of what we can do—God’s strength is revealed in full color.

When you admit your weaknesses to God and ask him to help you, God’s power is made perfect.

Your weakness becomes an image of God’s greatness (or, in other words, power.)

Your sin - the self-proclaimed inadequacies in your life—does’t stop God from shining. They actually give Him more places to shine through when you allow him to.

What does this look like practically?

Allowing God to change you from the inside out isn’t easy, because of the sin in our hearts we like to be in control and on the same level as God, but when you humble yourself to God and allow him to heal you of your sins, when you accept the grace of God he comes alongside you to help you life your backpack. Which means its easy for you to do things like:

Forgive someone who hurt you—even though it’s hard— because of God’s strength.

Stand up for what’s right even though you’re scared—because of God’s strength.

Keep going after a failure—because of God’s strength.

Conclusion:

2 Corinthians 12:10 NIV

10 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.

Your weakness isn’t the definition of who you are, its is the definition of how great God is to you (and how how great he can be in other peoples lives through you)

In your weakness, God’s strength shines the brightest.

If you ever are struggling to remember this simple truth there is a little song that I am sure you know, it goes like this:

Jesus Loves me this I know,

For the Bible tells me so,

Little ones to him belong;

They are weak, but he is strong.

Pray with me.