Boasting in my Weaknesses

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Has God been gracious to you to show you things in the spirit that most people haven’t been shown? As fallen people, we have much temptation to boast in such revealings. After all, to be shown a dimension of God that’s rarely seen or understood by others is special stuff. I’ve often wondered why the privilege is bestowed on a few. I suggest that the answer is, that God knows the heart of man, and he knows who he can trust with what’s been given. He knows if someone will become puffed-up with conceit. I have to ask myself, do I boast in the revelations of God; am I someone special to receive such spiritual insight? Or, like Paul, do I say, “you know, I could boast in these things, and it would be the truth; but what would I gain from it?” “Instead I’ll boast about my short-comings and my weaknesses, because that’s when God’s power rests on me.”

He goes on to say, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

But why does confessing our weaknesses cause God’s power to rest on us? I believe it’s a humility/pride issue. Nothing good ever comes from pride. It’s all about self, and putting self in front of others. Paul says in Philippians 2, “in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Humility always produces godliness. Giving up your place in line; allowing someone else a first choice; confessing a short-coming to a trusted friend. This is God’s pathway to righteousness. Humility says, “I screwed up, and it’s my fault.” Pride says, “I may have screwed up, but it wasn’t my fault.”

In 2 Corinthians 12:7, Paul says, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing great revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” Even as he asked God to take away the “thorn,” God said, “no, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

So there is a cost. But the cost of enduring hardship and confessing weaknesses pales in comparison to knowing God intimately and having his power rest on us.

Another year is gone, and the clean slate of 2009 is before us. Are you ready to step into the new year with a desire for God’s power to rest on you? I am. The cost is humility, expressed and evidenced by confession of weakness and short-comings; and putting the needs of others before our own.

I’ll finish with James 5:16…”confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.”

Lord, may I always be quick to confess my sins and weaknesses to you and to my close friends. And may your power rest on me, for your glory, that others may see Jesus. Amen.

~ by Brian on December 31, 2008.