9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
“Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak,
brave enough to face himself when he is afraid,
one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat,
and humble and gentle in victory.
“Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds;
a son who will know Thee – and
that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.
(excerpt from A Father’s Prayer by Douglas MacArthur – 1952)
Sometimes, life seems to throw more at us than we can bear. Sometimes we wish we could just go ahead and break, let go, give it up, throw in the towel. . .
Those are the very times that our Lord wants to be our strength. He stated quite clearly in His Word that when we are weak, He is strong. And yet, it is so very hard for us in our human frailty to understand and accept that He truly loves us this much.
A mother looses a child; her grief is beyond compare. She struggles to get up in the morning, and yet when she lies down at night her mind is a whirl of sorrow and maddening wonderings. Could she have done more? Could a phone call possibly have changed the course of history? Could her child have possibly known how loved he/she was?
A young man looses the best job he’s ever had, and may ever have; perhaps all due to his own ignorance and inabilities. He wonders aimlessly in the marketplace, carrying a cup of now cold coffee; bought with the last dollar he had to his name. . . wondering, hoping in spite of the futility of hoping for a miracle.
A girl who is not yet a woman grown, watches the little pregnancy stick in her shaking hand, praying it will not prove what she already knows. How can she who is still a child herself even begin to imagine giving birth to and caring for a tiny baby? Who will help her in the days ahead? How will she manage to tell her parents?
The hopelessness of this world is beyond imagining some days; the grief enough to overwhelm the strongest man or woman alive.
And yet, He tells us quite clearly in His precious Word that just when we are at our most hopeless state, helpless beyond understanding, that He IS our strength.
As a pastor’s wife for many years, I was often called on to pray with and listen to many a heartache. Not once did it occur to me to think that what this individual was enduring right at this moment wasn’t real; nor that the pain was not crushing at their heart in such a way as to literally incapacitate them momentarily.
What I did learn over time was that in spite of the fact that I certainly could not solve their problems, I could not fix the circumstances. . . in spite of all of my own weakness and inability, just my being there with them seemed to lend them strength. Within our humanness, the presence of another can often bring hope in the darkest of times.
This is the same when we stop, listen, and let our Savior into our hearts and lives. He truly wants to be our strength. He will carry our burdens when we are at the end of ourselves. . . if we will let him.
Whatever your burden is today, whatever grief or sorrow you are facing, I urge you, let Him take it from you. Let Him be your strength.