It’s eye-opening and useful to thank God in our weaknesses.

I’m not saying that we should thank God FOR our weaknesses. After all, there are many weaknesses which lead to very bad things.

Thanking God IN your weakness is something else. It is a humble reminder that we are not able to make it on our own; that our ego is a farce; that our stubborn quest for being “the strong independent type” is an act of faithlessness; and that our efforts to show God and others how much we have it all together… are laughable.

Walton Hilton wrote: “Trust that through the Lord’s mercy your weakness may become more useful to you than you ever imagined.”*

Useful. Because it opens your eyes to how much you need God. Weakness is a classroom where humility and wisdom take root within those who are learners and lovers of God.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul wrote: “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” Not his own power, which was weak and wobbly, but Christ’s.

Your weakness doesn’t define you. Nor does it disqualify you. Nor should it forever trap you in shame. Instead, it can teach you.

Weakness is a classroom where humility and wisdom take root within those who are learners and lovers of God.

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Notes:

–The Up Devotional is published 5 days a week (Monday-Friday) and returns on May 3, 2021.

–*Walter Hilton, ed. Halcyon Backhouse, The Scale of Perfection (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1992), 67.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.