LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Joy in the Weaknesses
"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities..." (2 Corinthians 12:10).
We have been taught from our childhood that we must be strong and valiant. In school, our parents yearned for us to stand out and obtain the first places. When we participated in some sport, we had to be the best ones, the ones that receive the gold medal.
Later, when we arrived at the church, we were also stimulated to being great, outstanding men and women. We were raised from our childhood into being prideful in front of men and God.
The Lord walks inverse to the world. He teaches us that we are dust, weak, and devoid of his glory: "For he knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more" (Psalms 103: 14-16).
We lived with the concept that we must be strong, but God humbles us to show us our real situation of weakness. We are less than nothing: "Indeed you are nothing…" (Isaiah 41:24). We are like the smoke that soon vanishes. Everything what takes us to a human glory is not of God, but evil: "…all such boasting is evil" (James 4:16).
Have we told the Lord that we cannot do anything and that we wait on him for everything? Do we enjoy ourselves in our weaknesses? Are we glad in being weak, in not being able to do anything, not even in thinking about something? If this has not been our attitude before God, it is because we still have much pride, and God will resist us: "Thus says the Lord God: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; nothing shall remain the same. Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted" (Ezekiel 21:26).
Jesus tells us in 2nd Corinthians 12:9 that his grace is sufficient for us. God does not want us to be strong, nor able, nor wise, because we would be full of pride. He wants to hope entirely in the grace that will be brought to us when Christ is revealed (1st Peter 1:13). If God wanted strong and wise individuals, he would not have chosen the weak (1st Corinthians. 1:26 - 29).
Instead of presenting to God our abilities, our capacities, our diplomas, we must feel joy in our weaknesses. Confess to him our weaknesses and incapacities in any area. When we begin to do that, we will begin to enjoy of his strength, his capacity, his power, this is, of his grace, from him who has all power in the heavens and on earth: Jesus. Because when we are weak, this is when we are strong.
Do not have distrust to feel joy in your weaknesses; do not try to hide them, because God already knows them. When we want to show what we are not, God becomes sad. The exaltation is for him. Rejoice in your weaknesses and God will have pleasure in maintaining you with his grace, his power, and his justice in Christ: "Fear not, for I am with you ;be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand" (Isaiah 41:10). "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might" (Ephesians 6:10).