WHEN I AM WEAK...

By Angeline M Duran Santiago

Find yourself dragging yourself throughout the day? Do you look in the mirror and feel disappointed because you think you're inadequate, weak, and without a fight for life? It's okay to be weak, really.

Three times I pleaded with

 the Lord to take it away from me.

2 Corinthian 12:8 NIV

We look at our infirmities, our lack, the areas where we find ourselves to be failures and we ask God to take away those things that stick out like a sore thumb and magnify our imperfections. "Take away my weakness." we pray. I'm learning that it's okay to not have it all together, because that's when I identify the One who can meet my needs and help me get it together.

But He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you,

 for my power is made perfect in weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9a NIV

It's when we learn that it's not to our disadvantage to be flawed, weak or helpless, that we can recognize our need for a God that can show up and do His thing in our lives. When I think of something weak, I think of a new tree. Once planted, people that know about farming or gardening, will go looking for strong wooden planks and rope to place just right around the new tree. Deep holes are dug near the tree with exact measurements and placed just right around the new tree. It is weak and vulnerable as it begins to grow. But the power behind those wooden planks are perfect for the tree's weakness.

We are like that tree and God's strength and power support and hold us up, not when we are strong and able to stand on our own, but when we have lost our strength, when we are broken, when we feel weak and can't hold on. His grace, all His gifts for us, are sufficient for us. He becomes our more than enough.

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly 

about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

2 Corinthians 12:9b NIV

So, we can boast, make a big deal and share our tough times with others without shame. Why? Because when we've been fine, we've given God praise and glory for His presence and moved on. But, when our world is falling apart, when we know that we know we can't do it on our own and what we see inside of us is not capable of making it through, we are in the perfect place, the perfect weakened and inadequate place, for God's power to completely rest on us. It's in our weakness that we learn to trust in His strength. It's in our weakness He pours out into our lives what we need. It's in my emptiness that His glory can fill me to overflowing. Then, yes, it's okay to be weak because when I am weak, then I realize, I am truly strong through Him.

2 Corinthians 2:10
That is why for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.