By Lysa TerKeurst
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
Jesus is the author of compassion and kindness. When facing the pain, agony, shame, and horror of the cross he couldn’t walk away – because He saw YOU. As Max Lucado says in his book The Final Week of Jesus, He saw us “right there in a middle of a world which isn’t fair … He saw you betrayed by those you love. He saw you with a body which gets sick and a heart that grows weak. He saw you in your own Garden of Gethsemane – and he didn’t want you to be alone…He would rather go to hell for you than to heaven without you.”
What an amazing act of kindness, and what an incredible example to follow of what we should do when we feel vulnerable and weak. Many of us say we have nothing to give when dark and lonely times come our way, but Jesus taught us to look past loneliness into the richness of helping others.
We say we having nothing to give, and God says, “You’re right, but I have something to give through you.” Remember the encouragement given to us in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Maybe that is why the world hates weakness so much. If it is in our weakness that the power of God can flow most freely, then it’s no wonder the world would want to cork up this power’s flow. Everything about our society screams out against being weak, yet weakness resides in us all. No matter how beautiful, rich, powerful, and significant someone may seem, weakness is still there.
Behind the thin bodies and glamorous clothing of the rich and famous, weakness is there. Weakness knows no bounds. At every level of society, in every race, men and women alike have weaknesses. And be assured that along with weakness, loneliness calls their names. Sorrows and insecurities still haunt them. All the while God gently calls them to let Him make their weaknesses and loneliness count for something good. Many choose not to listen.
To walk the path that the Lord delights in, we must be willing to let God use the circumstances of our lives to reach out to others. Let’s compare our hurts to stones littering our paths. We have a choice to do one of three things with these stones. We can use them to beat ourselves up, making our scars run deeper than they should. We can throw our stones at others, wounding them and making them also feel our pain. Or, we can use these stones to build bridges for others to walk across from their own darkness and pain into His healing light. This third option is seldom chosen, yet it’s exactly what God delights in.
Dear Lord, help me take an honest assessment of my weaknesses and places where I feel vulnerable right now. Show me Lord, who I could touch today so Your power could flow through my weakness. Help me to not be so self-consumed with my troubles but rather be a bridge to help another person find Your power. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Related Resources:
Do You Know Him?
Visit Lysa TerKeurst’s blog
Who Holds the Key To Your Heart by Lysa TerKeurst
Application Steps:
Who is in your sphere of influence today that might need a touch of some sort from you? Ask Jesus to give you the wisdom and words to know how to reach this person.
Reflections:
Have I been paralyzed by some type of weakness in my life?
Is it possible for Jesus to use this for good?
During this Easter season, people are usually more receptive to Jesus and to visiting a church. Who could you invite to go with you this weekend?
Power Verses:
Jeremiah 9:23-24, “This is what the Lord says: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.” (NIV)
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
Jesus is the author of compassion and kindness. When facing the pain, agony, shame, and horror of the cross he couldn’t walk away – because He saw YOU. As Max Lucado says in his book The Final Week of Jesus, He saw us “right there in a middle of a world which isn’t fair … He saw you betrayed by those you love. He saw you with a body which gets sick and a heart that grows weak. He saw you in your own Garden of Gethsemane – and he didn’t want you to be alone…He would rather go to hell for you than to heaven without you.”
What an amazing act of kindness, and what an incredible example to follow of what we should do when we feel vulnerable and weak. Many of us say we have nothing to give when dark and lonely times come our way, but Jesus taught us to look past loneliness into the richness of helping others.
We say we having nothing to give, and God says, “You’re right, but I have something to give through you.” Remember the encouragement given to us in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Maybe that is why the world hates weakness so much. If it is in our weakness that the power of God can flow most freely, then it’s no wonder the world would want to cork up this power’s flow. Everything about our society screams out against being weak, yet weakness resides in us all. No matter how beautiful, rich, powerful, and significant someone may seem, weakness is still there.
Behind the thin bodies and glamorous clothing of the rich and famous, weakness is there. Weakness knows no bounds. At every level of society, in every race, men and women alike have weaknesses. And be assured that along with weakness, loneliness calls their names. Sorrows and insecurities still haunt them. All the while God gently calls them to let Him make their weaknesses and loneliness count for something good. Many choose not to listen.
To walk the path that the Lord delights in, we must be willing to let God use the circumstances of our lives to reach out to others. Let’s compare our hurts to stones littering our paths. We have a choice to do one of three things with these stones. We can use them to beat ourselves up, making our scars run deeper than they should. We can throw our stones at others, wounding them and making them also feel our pain. Or, we can use these stones to build bridges for others to walk across from their own darkness and pain into His healing light. This third option is seldom chosen, yet it’s exactly what God delights in.
Dear Lord, help me take an honest assessment of my weaknesses and places where I feel vulnerable right now. Show me Lord, who I could touch today so Your power could flow through my weakness. Help me to not be so self-consumed with my troubles but rather be a bridge to help another person find Your power. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Related Resources:
Do You Know Him?
Visit Lysa TerKeurst’s blog
Who Holds the Key To Your Heart by Lysa TerKeurst
Application Steps:
Who is in your sphere of influence today that might need a touch of some sort from you? Ask Jesus to give you the wisdom and words to know how to reach this person.
Reflections:
Have I been paralyzed by some type of weakness in my life?
Is it possible for Jesus to use this for good?
During this Easter season, people are usually more receptive to Jesus and to visiting a church. Who could you invite to go with you this weekend?
Power Verses:
Jeremiah 9:23-24, “This is what the Lord says: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.” (NIV)
4 Comments:
Oh Lysa....I am claiming this verse. His grace IS sufficient for me; His power IS made perfect in my weakness. If for no other person, God has used you to send this message to me today.
This morning tears were unknowingly streaming down my face in church as we sang an old hymn:
"I hear the Savior say,
Your strength indeed is small
Child of weakness watch and pray
Find in Me your all in all."
He sees my weakness and is calling me to trust Him.
We closed our service with "It is well with my soul". As I sang one of the verses about my sin being nailed to the cross, I personalized the lyrics, "My fear was nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, PRAISE THE LORD, PRAISE THE LORD, O MY SOUL!"
It IS well with my soul.
Thank you for your wonderful reminder again today. When I am weak, HE is strong!
Love & blessings,
Joy
Thank you Lysa! I waited all day for a P31 devotional to pop up in my emails and not one devotional arrived
So I finally gave up and thought, Whose Blog will have the right message for me today? And I chose you and you never fail to have what we need to hear! You placed me in the Garden of Gethsemane and at the cross of Calvary to realize that my circumstances or trials of my life can help someone else to see God's love on the Cross and the power of His Resurrection!Thank you again for allowing me to see the bridge Jesus is and that I can point others in that direction and bridge the gap between their darkness and His Light,"for His Grace is sufficient" and I have been blessed to see His Power and know His Power
this really effedted me. especially that 1st paragraph.
Congratulation you did a great work with this post about Finding Power in Weakness I'm very interesting in this post and I would like to have any update about it. thanks for sharing!!! I really appreciate your information
Post a Comment
Home