I think about this often-how I think God uses me most in my weaknesses and not in my strengths. This is so backwards from the way we naturally think. We view our weaknesses in a negative light which only makes sense. However, I have found that it is in my hardest times or through my weakest moments that God chooses to use me most. It is in those dark and painful times when I think I can’t go on and I have nothing to offer that God gives me his power and I am able to be used in ways that I could never have imagined.
I was thinking about this today…how I can’t wait until I’m at a different place in life, maybe more successful, maybe when I have it more together, maybe when I have more to give in life, then God can really use me. Right after I thought that, I felt God reminding me that even in the hardest year of my life, I have seen him work in so many more ways than I ever thought possible. When I felt sickest, he still brought people into my life who needed encouragement and he gave me the strength to be a friend and offer hope. Surprisingly, it was often through my sickness and being open about my struggles that I was able to encourage most. When I was most discouraged, He gave me strength to keep believing that He was good and that He did have a plan for this disappointment. When we were suffering financially, He always provided for us, but he also always provided a way for us to give to others who needed what we had more.
I can see that He doesn’t just use me when I have it all together, when I have lots of money to give away, when I feel great and have tons of time to spare. No, in HIS strength, He enabled me to give when I was poor, sick and busy! That being said, I am not as poor, as sick or as busy as many, many other people. God has always blessed and provided, but this is how I was looking at my life compared to many other people around me. He uses me where I am now IN my weakness and I would almost argue BECAUSE of my weakness. No one can argue that it is Him working, it is Him accomplishing big things, it is Him being generous and sustaining, because I could never do that on my own where I am. He is most glorified in me when I am weakest. If I were strong and able and wealthy and had it all together, I could argue that it was me who was accomplishing great things. Even though it is always God, He is the one who has given me all things and can just as easily take them all away.
I am so thankful that I can hope and trust in Him. And I am so thankful that He is a God who chooses to use the broken and lowly and those who don’t have it all together…because I really don’t think there would be many people to choose from if He didn’t! So let this encourage you…let God use you where you are- broken and insufficient, because honestly, that is what we all are, even if we don’t see it. Don’t wait until you feel like you have it all together to serve and give and love, because you will never be there. God gives us the strength and energy and grace to accomplish what He has for us at each and every season of our lives. This current season has been a hard one for me, but I honestly wouldn’t change it for anything, because it has also been the richest, sweetest evidence of God’s love, His provision, and His glory in my life. I pray that others have seen that in me and can point to God and say that it is only by His grace and work in me that it was possible. To Him be all the glory.
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from 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 in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong…”
-2 Corinthians 12:8-10
