The Gift of Weakness: A Self-Examination
The Gift of Weakness: A Self-Examination.
Our working definition of weakness is, A lack of strength due to: sickness; a handicap; an ongoing difficulty; a distressing hardship; insulting opposition; a glaring vulnerability; a limitation that puts one at a disadvantage; the bearing of the difficult burdens of others.
Personal questions to consider as you think about the gift of weakness in you:
- “God is attracted to weakness.” (Jim Cymbala). Have you found that to be true in your observations of others’ lives and personal experience?
- “God’s power is secure in us only when it is linked to something that keeps us weak.” (Richard Bieber). Is there anything in your life that keeps you weak? Have you been able to sense God’s strength in that weakness?
- “I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.” (Philippians 4:13, the Amplified Bible). Jacob’s clever self-sufficiency hit the wall when he encountered God in their famous wrestling match in Exodus 32. He thereafter walked with a limp, increasingly intimate with God and dependent on Him. What is your limp? Has it increased your dependency on God in any way?
- “God desires that we come to maturity by using our strengths to get us into significant trouble that exposes our weaknesses.” (Dan Allender). Describe a time when that happened to you. When your weakness was exposed, did anything good come out of the situation, or are you still waiting?
- “The weaker I get, the stronger I become.” (2 Corinthians 12:10, the Message). There are two types of weakness: the particular weakness of a certain season, a temporary inadequacy of some sort; then there is a permanent weakness, something that will not leave you. Try to describe both kinds of weaknesses in your life.
- “The weakness of the flesh in suffering provides a firm working-place for the surpassing power of the Spirit.” (St. Maximus the Confessor). When you feel weak, when you suffer, how clearly do you feel yourself as a working-place of the Holy Spirit? Is it possible to be God’s working-place and not even know it? If the Spirit goes to work when I am weak, what does He do when I am strong?