Power Made Perfect In Weakness

This past Sunday, Pastor James from Living way preached a powerful message on 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. It's a pretty well known passage and honestly it was a message I wanted to walk away thinking I didn't have any. But what is interesting when I was reading a Desiring God Article on this it talked about weakness is not the sins we want to ignore about ourselves, but it references in V10: insults, hardships, persecution, and calamities- things that display us as weak or reveal our limitedness as humans in our present trials and sufferings. And ultimately as referenced in Pastor James' sermon and also the desiring God article that in and through it all God is doing something for His glory and our good.

"They are circumstances and situations and experiences and wounds that make us look weak; things we would probably get rid of if we had the human strength....So the answer to our first question is that weaknesses are not sins, but experiences and situations and circumstances and wounds that are hard to bear and that we can’t remove either because they are beyond our control"

(John Piper: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/christs-power-is-made-perfect-in-weakness )

Our good? Namely as Pastor James stated: God is more concerned about our humility and our sanctification more than our comfort, security, etc. Or in Piper's article, it glorifies the power of grace given by God and continues to give us hope because we know that God is sovereign over it all, whatever means and methods. The purpose is ultimately for His glory and our good.

And I feel like this idea of God's power through the Spirit and weakness, it didn't land until yesterday when I was meeting up with a friend I met at an AACF leadership camp like 4 years ago. And I'm super thankful for her because God is just so present and leave knowing that was a life giving conversation. But anyways, I was sharing about my parents and how it has been at home. And I was telling her how I've been enjoying it a lot and how it's been a grace to enjoy doing life with them, like running errands, hanging out on the couch and sharing memories, watching TV, etc. But that as my heart and love deepens for them, the desire to see Jesus as their treasure grows as well. Like with my mom I would love to see the fruit of patience, repentance, being more involved in a community to grow. Or with my dad, just accepting Jesus as his Lord and savior. This past week was interesting because I was reading a book that talked about Passive hatred in the context of rebuke and confrontation when speaking the truth in love toward someone who has sinned. And this book explained like if you fall to far to the "truth" side then you are stepping into emphasizing the law without grace ( legalism) or if you fall to far to the other side of love, you may think you're loving them by not speaking up but in reality it is considered "passive hatred" because you are more fearful about the repercussions than their holiness before God. And I was LIKE DANG OKAY! WHAT DO I DO!? Do I just bring it up out of nowhere and start telling my mom about her sins that I see or? But by God's grace I was able to discern that my freaking out came less from a place of worrying about her holiness and more from a place of wanting peace from seeing the results of change. I hope this all makes sense but I think core of this story revealed my weakness in this circumstance as a human and it's humbling. If I had the power or the strength to change my parents' heart to love God I would, my God I would do it in a second without thought. But it helped me realize the growing need of not only prayer, but faith to trust God's goodness and promises and sovereignty.

After sharing that, my friend told me about her brother. And we have talked about her brother for the past 4 years and each year had different updates from being maybe a believer to being a doubter and then this update was that he became a genuine Christian. And that was the most amazing thing ever!! Like after 4 years of praying and talking, God allowed her prayers to come to fruition. But the more we talked about it, the more we realized how God didn't have what some would consider a dramatic story, but it was nonetheless still a miracle. And that's when we realized I think at the same time the awe in how God can use it to magnify his power inwhat we would consider as normal and mundane moments. He made simple moments into something so profound and beautiful. God can use ordinary moments in His time to make His power known.

I'm not sure if this makes sense at all, in my head I thought this would but who knows. Basically when I originally heard this sermon and read this, I always saw weaknesses as short- comings, failures, and things about me that aren't the way I wanted, etc. But in reality I have realized that weaknesses may be yes, circumstances and trials that make us look weak to the world, but also may show how weak and limited we are to have power to change them. It made me acknowledge I have no power to change hearts, no power to make God's word true to someone or to move into conviction, but it is in that place of understanding how limited I am to see the need of a limitless and powerful God at work. And my friend's brother is a prime example. Like if my friend and I had our way, we would share then miraculously before our eyes they see the weight of sin, confess, repent and then believe. But I wonder if God doesn't always answer our prayers for even good things like salvation to show that He is the only one who works salvation and not us. I still can't get over how "normal" these events were to my friend and I as spectators, and then to have the opportunity to watch and then see that God impact her brother in those ways ! That is crazy, we would have never guessed his salvation to come by menial ( to our eyes) means. All to say that I see this verse very different, yes God uses our weakest moments to humble us, but I think I am able to say I have seen God's power made perfect as a limited and weak human being.