Offering Our Weaknesses To God As His Weapons
"He never received a formal education. His numerous letters, many of which still exist, are filled with grammatical errors. His physical appearance is not particularly impressive. His voice is high-pitched and nasal. Yet, these obstacles did not hinder God from using him to shake two continents."
A journalist was sent by his newspaper to write about the gospel campaign organized by D.L. Moody in England and to find out what the secret was behind his ability to bring so many people to Christ, those from both the nobility and the common people. After careful observation, he reported, "I cannot see anything in Moody that can explain his astonishing work."
When Moody read the report, he purportedly chuckled and said,
"That is precisely the secret of the spiritual revival that has taken place. The power of God has worked in [me]. The work is God's, not mine.'"
The way God works is beyond human comprehension. He uses those who surrender themselves and allow Him to work more than they can think or imagine.
J.S. Stewart wrote,
"It is that God always builds His kingdom on the very things that are weak and humble in man, and He can not only use us in our ordinariness and helplessness, with weaknesses that render us seemingly useless, but precisely because of those weaknesses ... there is nothing that can overcome a congregation or a soul that is taken, not by its strength, but by its weaknesses, offering those weaknesses to God as His weapons.'"
Today, as you look at your life and the "work" that is set before you (in your career, your child rearing, your ministry, or whatever), remember the "work" is not yours to do. It is God's to do through you. Surrender yourself to Him and His purposes.
Offer up your weaknesses to Him as His weapons!
"'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).
Jesus Is Just A Crutch
Crutches are an extremely helpful medical device if you are taken lame by either injury or surgical intervention. The premise is simple. Pop them under your arms and let them bear your wait so that you can stand and ambulate.
Of course, they’ve become quite the metaphor for “weak” people needing to lean on something or someone to be able to get along in life.
The last words you want to hear is someone telling you that you are leaning on a crutch in life. They might as well say, “Man, what’s wrong with you? You’re so weak and impotent. Grow up and stand on your own two feet.”
If you are a Christian, you’re probably no stranger to someone accusing you of leaning on your faith as a crutch.
To that point, author/speaker Mark Cahill has this to say:
Next time you hear someone say that Christianity is just a crutch for weak people say, "Yes, it is. I've had a bad fall into sin and I'm crippled. Without Jesus, I can do nothing!!"
"... for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5, NIV).
Own your crutch! Wear it like a badge of honor. Place your whole weight squarely on Jesus. Yoke yourself to Him, and He will bear your obligation, your sin, your burden. “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30, NIV).
What's Your Biggest Weakness?
Esra Gurkan, for MAILONLINE, writes:
Job interviews are an unpleasant chore that we all need to go through to get the role of our dreams. It's easy enough to talk about why you want the job and why you're the best person to do it. But there is one question that everyone dreads and is most likely to trip us all up: What's your biggest weakness?
... A job-hunter known as humansof took to Reddit to pose the horrible question to see how other people had answered and was soon inundated with responses. Among the 1,600 comments were people's own solutions ...
One Redditer answered the dreaded question by saying that they take failure a bit too hard sometimes. Another user, Bumpkinsworth, expanded on that, writing, "You can elaborate as to how that pushes you to work harder so that you won't make the same mistake twice."
Someone else advised using humor, suggesting you could remain silent and then pull a card from your pocket that reads, "I over prepare." And yet another Redditer sarcastically suggested the following reply: “People say I can be condescending. That's when you 'talk down' to people.”
Gurkan continues:
Sefromans replied to the thread with some useful advice: 'Saying something behavioral based like "I don't work well with people" or "I'm soft spoken" is like shooting yourself.
'Give a skills based "weakness" that you can take action to improve upon in the near future.
'Something like "I'm not too familiar with excel at the moment, but I'm planning on taking classes this coming month.” Make sure you provide a remedy to the weakness.'
We dread this question because an honest answer is likely to torpedo any hopes of getting the job. Weaknesses don't play well in our world. To succeed, it's important to appear strong, capable and in control.
However, the biggest interview any of us will ever face doesn't come in this lifetime, but rather when we stand before God in the next. God won't need to ask, “What is your greatest weakness?” He already knows the answer. It's the sin the has caused a separation in our relationship with Him.
We might impress the world with a clever answer that serves to hide our weaknesses, but God isn't so easily fooled. But here's the good news: We don't have to "make sure" we "provide a remedy" to our biggest weakness. God has already done that by sending His Son into the world to die for our sins.
That being so, all that's left for us to overcome our biggest weakness before God is to humbly put our trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10).
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).