Continuing on with our look at GODS Providing and Perfecting Strength in our weakness. And from the pen of Pastor Hoekstra GODS Grace our ability to over come weakness. Making use of the ESV translation in my e-Sword program.
"Grace Perfecting Strength in Weakness"
"My Grace is Sufficient for you, for My Strength is made Perfect in weakness . . . He gives Power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases Strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their Strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (2Corinthians 12:9 and Isaiah 40:29-31)
"When the subject of spiritual Strength is raised, our thinking often turns in one of two directions. Either we consider how we can muster up our own strength, or we dwell on our own weaknesses, doubting that adequate strength can ever be found. Well, it is clear from the scriptures that GOD is not expecting that mere human strength will be sufficient for our spiritual callings. "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall." Natural strength is never more abundant than in youthful lives. Yet, even that supply is not what people need for spiritual endurance.
GOD's word is also clear that an awareness of our weakness need never lead to despair over finding strength. Actually, the opposite is true. When we realize our drastic insufficiency, that is a reminder of our qualification to receive GOD's supply of Strength. "He gives Power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases Strength." Those who admit that they are weak are the very ones to whom GOD offers His Strength. Those who confess that they have no might at all are the people in whom GOD increases His Strength.
It is an amazing Truth that GOD's Strength is Perfected (displayed the most fully) in the arena of our own weaknesses. "My Grace is Sufficient for you, for My Strength is made Perfect in weakness." Whenever we agree with GOD concerning our complete frailty in any given area of life, His Grace is available to meet the need. Whenever we personally look to Him as our source for Strength, we will find that He is our Sufficiency for the need. "Those who wait on the LORD shall renew their Strength."
Waiting upon the LORD involves hoping in Him, placing our expectations (as in a young child waiting for a promised gift or a surprise) upon Him and not upon ourselves. For all who depend upon Him in view of their own weakness, "they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Thereby, our confession can be: "I can do all things through Christ Who Strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13)."
Strength in Weariness:
Psalm 8:1-2 "O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, You have Established Strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger."
1Corinthians 1:25, 26-31 "For the foolishness of GOD is wiser than men, and the weakness of GOD is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But GOD chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; GOD chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of GOD. And because of HIM you are in Christ Jesus, Who became to us Wisdom from GOD, Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the LORD."
2Corinthians 12:1-10, 13:4 "I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the LORD. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, GOD knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, GOD knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses—though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the Truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the LORD about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, "My Grace is Sufficient for you, for My Power is made Perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."2Corinthians 13:1-4 "This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them—since you seek proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For He was crucified in weakness, but Lives by the Power of GOD. For we also are weak in Him, but in dealing with you we will live with Him by the Power of GOD."
Hebrews 11:32-38, 39-40 "What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since GOD had provided something Better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect."
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