My Power is Perfected in Weakness

There seems to be a connection between weakness and power, our weakness and His power. How do we know when Jesus is living through us as opposed to us trying to be spiritual or Christ-like? When we try, we can be a pretty good Christians. There is one small problem, though, when we succeed at living the Christian life on our own efforts, pride springs up. We start feeling proud and yes, even somewhat better than other Christians who may not be doing as well.

There is a connection between His life in us and our weakness. Paul had an encounter with God. Somehow Paul was transported to heaven and heard some unspeakable things. God revealed truths to Paul that most of us do not get to hear on this earth. Paul was probably feeling pretty special, one of God’s favorites. Of course, he had to suffer much and these visions gave him strength in time of need. However, this heaven-transporting experience was a cause of pride for Paul. God knows our flesh and how we struggle with temptations. He helped Paul by giving Him a special anti-pride gift to avoid boasting of his trip to heaven.

2 Corinthians 12:7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!

God knew Paul would need some help with his pride, so He gave him a thorn in the flesh. Paul needed something special to keep him from feeling proud about his heavenly experiences.

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Paul asked God three times. But God spoke an amazing word to Paul. We usually focus on the part about His grace being sufficient, which is a comforting word. He also said power is perfected in weakness. Is there power in weakness? We, here on earth, think just the opposite. Obviously, Paul received this word and believed it, as we can see from his response, “I will rather boast about my weaknesses…” The last part of the verse is intriguing. He wants to boast about weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in him. Weakness is connected to power which is connected to Jesus dwelling in us.

Have you ever wondered about God’s power? How is His power manifested in the church today? How is His power manifested in our lives? This scripture seems to indicate that His power is manifested in weakness. What a strange concept. It is when we are weak that we are strong.

2 Corinthians 12:10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

God will express His power in our lives through our weaknesses. We do not like to admit our weaknesses. We spend a lot of good time and energy trying to hide them.

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

There seems to be a cutting line dividing His power in us and our human power. In other words, Jesus will manifest His life and power through our weaknesses. Why? So we and others will know the difference between us and God, us and Jesus living in us. When it is His power being manifested in our daily lives, we cannot take any of the credit, any of the glory because we know we are weak and could not have done whatever He did in our lives.

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;

2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as {coming} from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

Does God need our strengths to do His will? Paul had quite a resume he quoted describing his education and Jewish pedigree but he said he counted all of that as rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ. Jesus did not bring His strengths to this earth. Jesus emptied Himself. He became poor that we might be rich.