Morning By Morning #309

My power is made perfect in weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

A primary qualification for serving God with any degree of success and for doing His work well and triumphantly is a sense of our own weakness. When the Lord’s warrior marches forth to battle, strong in his own might, or when he boasts, “I know I will be victorious, for my own mighty arm and conquering sword will give me the victory,” defeat is not far away. God will not go forward with the person who marches ahead in his own strength. He who has counted on victory in this fashion has counted wrongly, for “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zech. 4:6). Those who enter the battle boasting of their own prowess will return with their victory banners dragging through the dust and their armor stained with disgrace.

Those who serve the Lord must serve Him in His way and His strength or He will never accept their service. Whatever mankind does unaided by God’s divine strength, He will never accept as His work. He throws mere fruit of the earth away and will only reap fruit produced from seed sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of His divine love.

God will empty you of yourself before He will put His resources in you, cleaning out your granary before filling it with the finest of His wheat. The river of the Lord is full of water, but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. He will never allow any strength to be used in His battles except that which He Himself imparts.

Believer, are you mourning your own weakness? Take courage, for you must have an awareness of your own weakness before the Lord will give you victory. Your emptiness is the necessary preparation for being filled, and being cast down is simply preparing you to be lifted up.

When I am weak then am I strong,

Grace is my shield and Christ my song.

Isaac Watts, 1674 – 1748

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

When it comes to spiritual things, human weakness—or human strength, for that matter—is meaningless. Although God has chosen to work through His people in many ways, He is not dependent upon us, or on our human power, to accomplish His purpose. The Lord has said, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isa. 46:10).

Paul certainly understood that God’s purpose indeed “will stand” and that His “power is made perfect in [our] weakness.” This is why he went on to say, after our text verse today, that instead of boasting in his own power, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 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” (2 Cor. 12:9–10).

Father, as “the power of the LORD came upon Elijah” (1 Kings 18:46), may Your power be mine today. May I trust solely in Your strength, be faithful to Your calling, and do Your will in Your way and in Your timing.