Aragorn: Are you frightened?
Frodo: Yes
Aragorn: Not nearly frightened enough. I know what haunts you.
I think that we in the church should have a similar conversation with ourselves and with one another. It might go something like this:
Do you recognize your weakness?
Yes
Not nearly enough. I know what your goal is.
Our goal is too lofty for us to attain. It is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It is to take up our cross daily and die. It is to seek first the kingdom of God. It is to be holy as God is holy. In a word, our goal is Christlikeness. When asked we would admit that we are not up for that task. We know that we are too weak. However, I think that as we go about pursuing holiness we act as though we have strength enough. We try hard, set a new goal, read a new book, start a new program. We know that we are weak, but perhaps not nearly enough.
Should we just give up now? Oh, no! There is strength for us, but just not in us. Jesus said that nothing is impossible for God. Paul said that he could do all things through him who gave him strength. Paul also prayed that the Ephesians would know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe…”
How do we get that power? By being completely weak. Christ told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Weakness doesn’t sound too good, but if we could really know the blessing of weakness, we would say like Paul, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor.12:9-10)
So how do we know our weakness more fully and to rest content in it? I suggest that one way to increase our familiarity with our weakness and to magnify it to ourselves is to fast. Jesus assumed that we would. He said, “When you fast…” (Matt. 6:16-17) Fasting was common in the past and was commanded in the Old Testament, but today we don’t really get the point.
One point of fasting is that is magnifies our weakness and inadequacy and magnifies God’s strength and sufficiency. It doesn’t take a long fast for us to feel physically weak. We ask God for our daily bread because we need daily bread to keep us going. Forgoing that bread for just one day makes us feel our neediness. That in turn can be a graphic reminder that we are similarly spiritually dependent upon God. We don’t perhaps notice such weakness if we neglect the means of grace, but we are even more needy spiritually than physically.
There have been times when I thought about fasting but told myself that I just couldn’t do it right then. I had some task or responsibility that I needed my strength to do. I just couldn’t be physically weak then. However, I could go off to do these things without prayer or meditation on God’s Word and never notice my spiritual neediness. Fasting at those difficult times is even more effective at pointing out weakness. If I wouldn’t think of beginning a difficult task without eating, I certainly should not think of beginning it without seeking to be strong in the Lord. We are not sufficient; his grace is sufficient. His power is made perfect in weakness. Fasting reminds me that weakness is what I have in abundance.
We are not up for the task of being Christ-like, for being holy as God is holy. But when we are weak, then we are strong. Let’s magnify our weakness and pray without ceasing for his strength for Redeemer as Paul did for the Thessalonians.
"To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."
(2 Thessalonians 1:11-12)
