When I am weak, then I am strong

I have always had a hard time completely understanding what the verse 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.  God has been revealing to me through Chuck Swindoll what Paul meant by these verses.  It is that divine strength comes when human weakness is evident.  When we are weak, Christ moves and shows up when we need Him, making His power that much note clear and obvious in our lives.  For these reasons we can "boast in our weaknesses" because it is cool when God shows up.

When I know that I can't do something, or am struggling to do it, I can rely on God and His strength alone to get me through.  When I am in a position of weakness and need to rely on God's strength to do something, His strength is that much more evident in my weakness.  The important thing to realize though is that I need to always surrender myself to Him and His strength.  There will never be a time where I should be relying on myself to accomplish anything.  He has blessed me with talents and abilities, and I should work to develop them, but regardless of how competent I become in something, I need to be surrendering all of my efforts to His power and strength, because I am always weak, and He is always strong.  Anything I ever accomplish is always directly related to how He chooses to bless my efforts.  This is the case for things I am naturally good at, or things I am not good at.  His strength and sovereignty is what determines outcomes.  I just need to get out of my own way and surrender to Him.

The fact that the outcomes are always directly related to how He chooses to bless my efforts is another form of recognizing that I am weak and He is strong.  For instance, I can be the best in teh world at something, but God can always make the results of my efforts less than favourable.  I must never look at the results of my efforts being solely dependent upon myself.  I must humbly recognize that God always has the final say in all results and circumstances.  I should have confidence in my abilities, for this is a way that I can work to perform my best.  If I am not confident, I will not perform as well as I will if I am confident; however, I need to always ensure that I am fully aware of the fact that God is in complete control, and it is important that I always humbly fear Him and place myself in a position of weakness, recognizing that I am weak, but HE IS ALWAYS STRONG!