Read: 2 Corinthians 12:6-10
When I am weak, then I am strong. (v. 10)
Stage 4 osteoarthritis prevented me from enjoying activities that were central to my life, and after years of increasing pain and declining flexibility and strength, I had both of my knees replaced in the same year. The rehabilitation was very hard and painful, and when I was at my weakest, when I wished I’d never opted for the surgeries, I begged God for immediate relief, wondering why I couldn’t be healed without the pain.
When encountering a tough circumstance, it’s easy to quickly try to run away from it or quickly try to rid ourselves of it, but God’s message to Paul in this passage is to endure. Endure hardship so that the power of God may rest on him. For it’s when we’re out of strength that we finally depend on God the most. When we embrace the suffering given to us because we’ve been given God’s grace—which is sufficient to endure and is necessary for our faith to grow—our weakness is no longer an obstacle but a gateway for God’s strength.
In verse 10, Paul refers to more than isolated and occasional experiences of weakness. Instead, this verse shows us that when life goes into meltdown, when our feet are swept out from under us with the perplexing surprises of life, we don’t throw in the towel. We return afresh to God. That moment of life implosion, taken to Christ, is where we finally get traction and power in our suffering. Our agony is where God himself lives.
As you pray, ask how you can embrace your weakness.
Ariana D. Den Bleyker is a Pittsburgh native currently residing in New York’s Hudson Valley. She is the author of two devotional poetry collections,To Be Held by the LightandWaking in the Light. She is an ordained deacon in the Reformed Church of America.
