"..so I wouldn't get a big head, 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!... My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength is made perfect in your weakness" -2 Cor 12:7-10 (MSG)
I read a really nice quote the other day that one of my friends retweeted - "He who kneels before God can stand before anyone". This is a great motto and sounds very nice and we would highly recommend it to others, but is it something we would do?
St Paul understood this idea, and the moment he finally did, God responded to his cry and said, "My strength is made perfect in your weakness". Its so easy for us nowadays to talk about doing things and and ways to live life, but thats all thats happening - talking! How many times have we heard friends say 'A healthy way to eat is..' or 'A good way to fix this problem is..' or 'you know what we should really do about..', and then it stops there.
The problem is that we have an image of ourselves as the know-it-all who thinks we can sit back and 'tell' others what to do, when we're sitting in our own misery. It is only when we, like St Paul, realize what is going on, that something is stopping us from going further, and that there is a God who loves me and has me in the palm of His hands, that we will fix ourselves.
It is a very thin line to tread on, and the devil seizes the opportunity right away! He loves to blow our head up, thinking we can do it all - rely on our strength, social status, income, etc. Let's make sure we catch ourselves before he does!
The devil loves to make strong people weak, and God loves to make weak people strong.
So true Sam. It's easier to say than to do, and it's also easy to forget that the Lord is "He who supports [us]..." (ps3)
ReplyDeleteHow do we make ourselves weak so that God can make us strong? Is it just the realization that we can do nothing without His strength, or is it more an active action? Any thoughts??
DB
hey man, I think its a little bit of both, but it shouldnt be that hard. The only thing stopping us, is ourselves. I dont think we need to make ourselves anything, we already are weak.. we just have to realize it!.. and that moment we do realize it, is when we allow God to work in us. I mean, yea we can accomplish a bunch of things on our "own" - but in my opinion, it is a much better story when the underdog, knowing it is an underdog, gets the big "W".
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