Weakness ~by Susan Ray

In “The Fellowship of the Ring” movie this exchange takes place between Aragorn and Frodo.

 

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)

Neediness ~Susan Ray

Joni Eareckson Tada is a needy person.  As a quadriplegic she has to have help to do things that most of us do without a thought.  I read an account of her daily routine and this is what she said.  “You know that time when you’re awake, but you haven’t yet opened your eyes.  For me I can hear my girlfriend in the kitchen running water for coffee.  I know she’s going to come into my bedroom, give me a bed bath, do my toileting routines, get me dressed, sit me up in a wheelchair, push me to the bathroom, brush my hair, brush my teeth, blow my nose.” 

 

To me that is a powerful picture of neediness.  Apart from her helper, Joni can do virtually nothing.  It’s easy to see Joni’s need; it’s sometimes more difficult to see our own.  Yet Jesus has said that we are actually worse off than Joni.  Jesus says that apart from him we can do nothing—not virtually nothing—nothing at all (John 15:5).

 

I was once a person who thought I could do a lot.  The beginning of John 15:5 says, “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.”  I thought that described me.  I believed that I was abiding in Christ because I drove myself to be good and to do good.  I did not see myself as a needy person.  I saw myself as competent and hardworking Christian, a good Christian, and I was proud.  I didn’t realize that I was busy building with wood, hay, straw (1 Cor. 3:12) that would not stand the testing of God.  I was so busy doing good things that I didn’t notice that I was, apart from Christ, doing nothing.

 

God is a loving Father who doesn’t leave us undisciplined, and through times of suffering, he began to teach me that I could actually do nothing.  I have been shown my barren branches as my life lacked love and joy and peace and patience no matter how hard I tried.  I have been forced into dry, hard places so that Psalm 42 resonated in my soul.  As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?  My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

 

The world wants strong people.  It loves the beautiful, the powerful, the rich.  God’s kingdom, however, isn’t built on strength but on weakness.  He makes that point again and again.  For example: 

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  (2 Cor. 12:9)

God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.  (James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5)

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. (1 Cor. 1: 27, 28)

Blessed are the poor in spirit. (Matthew 5:3)

 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” ²¹ So let no one boast in men.  (1 Cor. 3:18-21)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. (Prov. 3:5)

I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit.  (Is.57:15)

I was happy when I thought that I was strong, but I am blessed by sorrowing in my weakness.

 

In the interview with Joni Eareckson Tada, she shared another of these weakness verses.  She said, “I identify so strongly with 2 Corinthians 1, where the apostle Paul was writing to his brothers in Asia, and he inasmuch says, ‘I don’t want you friends to be uninformed about what we endured.  We were facing conflicts far beyond our ability; for beyond it, to the point where we even despaired of life.’  Hello!  I get that, because I’m there often, Oh, God, I’d rather be dead than face this.  I mean, even the apostle Paul struggled with that.  But then he says in the next verse; this is so powerful, ‘But these things happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.’  I think of that verse virtually every morning…And my eyes are still closed, and I’m thinking, I can’t do this.  I cannot face this.  I cannot face this one more day.  I have no strength for quadriplegia.  But, Lord God, I can do all things through You, even quadriplegia, if You strengthen me.  So give me Your smile.  Jesus, I need You urgently.  Please show up big time.  And I’m telling you, by the time she (her helper) walks into my bedroom with that cup of coffee, I’ve got a smile that has been sent straight from heaven.  Hard fought for, hard won, and profound, deep and powerful; that peace that…passes all understanding.  I don’t get it, but I have it.  And I think that’s what Paul is talking about in that verse.  These things happen that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.”

 

May we continue to work to see our neediness just that clearly.  Apart from him we can do nothing.  Apart from him we can do nothing in the weak times, the times of suffering where we are just panting from the drought of our souls, and apart from him we can do nothing in the easy times when we feel strong and happy and at peace.  Knowing that will bring us great blessing because Christ says to us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore let us boast all the more gladly of our weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon us.