HE WHOSE STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES.

TOPIC: HE WHOSE POWER IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS

COMPILED/EDITED BY-:
Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace Udochukwu
President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
2 Corinthians 12:9

The apostle Paul chose to take glory in his infirmities and moments of pain and weakness because it was in those moments, God was really magnified. After suffering beatings and persecution of an indescribable nature, Paul was still able to get up and minister effectively. He refused to be weighed down by any pain that could have hindered or harmed him. He never operated on his own strength; his own human strength and resolve could never keep him going. Paul’s wisdom was great because he knew that he could not boast of any of achievements because it was through Christ that he achieved or attained anything. We are to live the same; knowing that without Christ, we will not be able to face a thing.

‘For my power is made perfect in weakness.’
2 Corinthians 12:9
A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing God’s work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness. When God’s warrior marches out to battle, strong in his own might, when he boasts, “I know that I will overcome—my own ability and my self-confidence will be enough for victory,” defeat is staring him in the face.

God will not enable the man who marches in his own strength. He who reckons on victory by such means has reckoned wrongly, for “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”1

Those who go out to fight, boasting of their ability, will return with their banners trailing in the dust and their armor stained with disgrace. Those who serve God must serve Him in His own way and in His strength, or He will never accept their service.

Whatever a man does, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth He casts away; He will only reap corn the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love.

God will empty out all that you have before He will put His own into you; He will first clean out your granaries before He will fill them with the finest of wheat.

The river of God is full of water; but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in His battles but the strength that He Himself imparts.

Are you mourning over your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give you victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and you are being humbled to prepare you for being lifted up.

When I am weak then am I strong,Grace is my shield and Christ my song.
Have you ever truly experienced Gods power taking over your weakness? There are times that we experience storms and resistance in our lives. This usually overwhelms us and sometimes we feel completely crashed. There is a point in life that everything seems to go the wrong way. At this point you always feel like all your energy is gone and there is nothing left for you to do. You do not know if you should give up or press in.Sometimes you even try to think if it is God making you slow down or if its the enemy that is coming against you.

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 in my weakness , so that the power of Christ may rest in me.”
2 Corinthians 12:9

Our dependence is well expressed in that verse when Paul wrote about the thorn in his flesh. Paul pleaded with God three times to take it away but God told him that His power is made perfect in Paul’s weakness. God did not remove Paul’s weakness ,instead he spoke into his weakness. God’s power is mainly found when we shift from begging him to remove our struggle but to listen to Him speak into our struggles. Our weakness makes us depend on God and draw us close to Him. If you are not strong anymore because you cannot fight or your weakness is overwhelming you, just pray to God for his power to be manifested in your weakness. You do not have to try to be perfect because God is able to use less than perfect vessels. God simply wants us to surrender our inadequacy to him so that He can fill us with His strength.
If you are in any storm or challenge right now, I encourage you not to have the pressure on yourself. If you have any addictions that are pulling you away from God, surrender them and God will manifest Himself.
Do not put it on your shoulders or stress about it. Just let God.Allow His power to manifest in your weakness. Do not compromise your peace when you have God who already loves you unconditionally and is faithful to His word. Do not stress because God’s power is always made perfect in our weakness. Let him fill you with His grace and strength. Our ability and strength comes from the One who can do all things.

OUT OF WEAKNESS WERE MADE STRONG”

“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.”
Hebrews 11:32-36

THOSE WHO OUT OF WEAKNESS were made strong are written among the heroes of faith, and are by no means the least of them. Believers “quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong.” Who shall tell which of the three grand deeds of faith is the greatest? Many of us may never have to brave the fiery stake, nor to bow our necks upon the block, to die as Paul did; but if we have grace enough to be out of weakness made strong, we shall not be left out of the roll of the nobles of faith, and God’s name shall not fail to be glorified in our persons.

Brethren, as believers in the Lord Jesus, we are called to two things, namely, to do and to suffer for his name’s sake. Certain saints are summoned to active marching duty, and others are ordered to keep watch on the walls. There are warriors on the field of conflict, and sentries in the box of patience.

Both in doing and in suffering, if we are earnest and observant, we soon discover our own weakness. “Weakness” is all we possess. “Weakness” meets us everywhere. If we have to work for the Lord, we are soon compelled to cry, “Who is sufficient for these things?” and if we are called to suffer for him, our weakness, in the case of most of us, is even greater: many who can labor without weariness cannot suffer without impatience. Men are seldom equally skilled in the use of the two hands of doing and bearing. Patience is a grace which is rarer and harder to come at than activity and zeal. It is one of the choicest fruits of the Spirit, and is seldom found on newly-planted trees. The fact soon comes home to us that we are weak where we most of all desire to be strong.

Our longing is to be able both to do and to suffer for our Lord, and to do this we must have strength from above, and that strength can only come to us through faith. I have read you this glorious eleventh of Hebrews, which describes the mighty men of faith, the men of renown. They accomplished all their feats by a power which was not in them by nature. They were not naturally strong either to do or to suffer. If they had been, they would not have required faith in God; but being men of like passions with ourselves, they needed to trust in the Lord, and they did so. They were quite as weak as the weakest of us; but by their faith they laid hold on heavenly strength until they could do all things. There was nothing in the range of possibility, or, I might say, nothing within the lines of impossibility, which they could not have performed. They achieved everything that was necessary in the form of service, and they bore up gloriously under the most fearful pressure of suffering, simply and only by faith in God, who became their Helper. You and I may be very weak at this time, but we can be made strong out of just such weakness. We need not wish to have any strength of our own, for by faith we can reach to any degree of power in the Lord. We can have all imaginable strength for the grandest achievements desirable, if we have faith in God. Upon this simple but most practical matter I am going to speak to you at this time. We all wish to be strong. Medicines, embrocations, foods, baths, and all sorts of inventions are advertised as means of increasing strength. We are all in heavenly things so weak, that the idea of being made strong should be very attractive to us. Let us learn, then, how others “out of weakness were made strong,” and let us follow on to enjoy their privilege by copying their conduct.

Let me ask you to note, first, faith makes men strong for holy doing; and, secondly, faith makes men strong for patient suffering.

Nothing but faith can save the present unbelieving church: nothing but firm faith in the grand old doctrines of grace, and in the ever-living and unchanging God can bring back to the church again a full tide of prosperity, and make her to be the deliverer of the nations for Christ: nothing but faith in the Lord Jesus can save you or me. The Lord give you, my brothers, to believe to the utmost degree, for his name’s sake! Amen.

PRAYER
Dear God, I experience many moments of weakness in my daily life. I thank you that I can totally rely on your strength to move forward and do the work you have called me to do. I take glory in my moments of pain and weakness, because you give me the strength and resolve to carry on, the same way you did for the apostle Paul and the rest of the believers who proclaimed the gospel. I choose not to give up because I know you are always with me. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

SHALOM

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