The Bible Edge
Everyone needs an Edge, Believers can have the Bible Edge
II Corinthians 12:9
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.
Jesus said …my strength is made perfect in weakness… His strength is directly tied to our weaknesses. The stronger we are, His strength is less than perfect in us. The weaker we are the more perfect His strength is in and through us. In the very next verse of the Bible, this truth is put into a real-life application by the Apostle Paul. He said, 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. II Corinthians 12:10. In real life situations, whatever they may be, if we become weak, we can then become strong, only that strength is not ours, but the Lord’s.
This is one of those promises that contains both conditions and no conditions. The unconditional promise is that the Lord’s strength is available to any and all. But to obtain that strength, we must become weak, that is the conditional part. Let me share a personal testimony here.
My wife was diagnosed with cancer. With the diagnosis we were told that it was an aggressive form and would take several surgeries plus expensive pharmaceuticals, plus chemotherapy and perhaps radiation treatments. The next day I called our insurance company to enquire about our coverage. We knew that it was a limited policy, at the time it was all I could afford. My wife was a homemaker, raising our children and taking care of our domestic needs. I did not make much as a pastor, and a small policy was all we could afford, really it was just for accidents and hospital stays etc. I was notified on that phone call that the policy had been changed, that I should have received a document about the new benefits. Long story short, there was no coverage for her on this diagnosis. We were weak. We had no insurance coverage, no money, nothing of any real value other than our home.
The first two surgeries we paid out of pocket, through the benevolence of churches that knew us and others who donated funds to us and by taking all the equity out of our home. Somehow, we never were delinquent in any payments or bills and today we owe nothing except the increased house payment that will be paid off in a few years. When we were weak financially, our Lord was strong financially. We became weak and His strength was perfect. This changed the entire outlook we have on financial security. As a pastor in my 24 years at the same church, there have been multiple times that all I had as far as strength was the strength of our Lord, because my only strength was weakness.
Which brings us to the edge, the Bible Edge that all can take away from today’s devotion. Let weakness become your strength. Put yourself in a place of weakness and let Him be strong. The list that Paul gave us includes: infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, and distresses; it pretty much covers all the eventualities of life, the issues of the human condition. Someday, perhaps tomorrow I tell you about two foxes and a dog that illustrates the Lord’s strength in our lives.
William T. Howe, Ph.D.
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