Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– 2 Cor 12:9
Weakness Keeps us Humble
Why did God allow the Apostle Paul to suffer so much? The same reason He does other people. It is to keep Paul and others humble. It’s hard to be prideful when you’re hurting. It’s hard to boast or brag when you are suffering, so Paul writes that it was “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” (2nd Cor 12:7). God was telling Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2nd Cor 12:9a). That kept Paul humble.
Weakness Reveals God’s Power
When we are weak, God is more able to display His power, but if we’re trying to go through things on our own power, God’s power cannot be revealed. This explains why Paul wrote, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2nd Cor 12:9b). Christ’s power cannot rest upon us if we’re not glad in our weaknesses or if try to get through life alone. It is only when our weaknesses are displayed that God’s power is clearly seen.
Weakness Keeps Us Dependent
When you are weakened by health problems, financial troubles, or relationship issues, we more often than not run to the Father and seek His supernatural strength and help. If we never had any problems, why would we ever need God, so our weaknesses are actually good because they force us to depend on God, and besides, that’s what He wants anyway?
Weakness Teaches Contentment
When we are weak, ironically, we can be strong, but only because Christ will strengthen us, but we also have a chance to learn something important in our weaknesses and that is we can learn to be content in all circumstances. Paul wrote that it was “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” (2nd Cor 12:10), and “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1st Tim 6:6).
Conclusion
The Bible teaches us that our weaknesses can keep us humble, and they also display God’s power much more clearly, but these weaknesses also keep up dependent upon God and these same weaknesses present us with an opportunity to learn contentment, and you can’t learn contentment without experiencing weaknesses or difficulties, so those are four things that our weaknesses do for us.
