The Weaker I get the Stronger I Become.

2 Corinthians 12:7b-10 in the message says:

I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it's all you need.

My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size -- abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

All of us have something -- in this post I refer to it as a Chair. It is something hard that God has given us. Paul refers to it as a handicap above.

But what amazing words Paul has about those things... he basically is saying that we need to embrace and appreciate hardship as a GIFT. Wow is that counter to all that we as humans want to do! We want to hate it. We want to complain about it. We tend to get bitter and resentful and critical because God has given us this hard thing (or sometimes, because we have unknowingly chosen it).

What an amazing concept -- the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

To me it is a mystery. One I think about in tears today. But I'm finding it to be true in my life and it is such a profound blessing.

The weaker I get, the stronger I become.