Weaknesses

Do you ever thank the Lord for your weaknesses or do you only thank the Lord for the things that your strengths are seen in?  Did you ever thank God for something that hinders you, like insults? It is easy to thank the Lord for His blessings, but what about hardships and trials?  How many times do you seek the Lord’s heart instead of His hands?  Thanking God when He blesses us isn’t hard but what about when He doesn’t answer you the way you want Him to, do you still thank Him?  What is your attitude when things seem to spiral out of control?

The Lord wants us to thank Him no matter what is going on in our lives. And let me be very transparent here, I have had a struggle with this for a very long time and I haven’t perfected it yet.  But even with that said, I still have to tell the truth because I need to hear it and read about it and be encouraged to do it just like any other Christian.

Do you ever just take time to just sit quietly before the Lord and thank the Lord for everything that He has accomplished in your life, whether you think they are good or not?  If the Bible says, “All things work together for good to those who love God to those who are the called according to His purpose,” and it does, shouldn’t we be thanking the Lord for all things?  What about persecutions and calamities, none of us want to deal with these things let alone thank the Lord for them.  But think about these things, what do they accomplish in our lives?

What do insults do for us?  I would say depending on our response, they show us an area where we need to grow and mature in our lives.  Most of the time when we are insulted it is because of our pride, and we need to deal with the root cause of that in our lives.

What about hardships and trials, like, if I remember right, I think I heard in a song, “If we never had any problems we wouldn’t know that God could solve them.”  Plus they build character and strengthen our faith. Every time we go through one of these things, and come out victoriously, it should build faith and endurance.  

What about persecution?  Paul said, “if you live a godly life you will be persecuted.”  This shows that you have been counted worthy to suffer for Christ and also that the Spirit of God rests on you and there are treasures in Heaven waiting for you, these are all good things praise God!

And what about calamites, things that come your way unexpectantly, although very hard to accept at times, help to shape and mold us into grounded Christians if we deal with them with the right attitude. So, all these things are not bad things, it is all in our perspective and our ultimate attitude.  

Paul had a problem with a thorn in his flesh, let’s read how he handled it.  It is in the book of 2 Corinthians 12:6-10 (NLT), “If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

 Paul felt his strength came from his weaknesses.  So maybe we ought to be thanking the Lord for our weaknesses and not complaining, but rejoicing.  What do you think?  Have a great day and God bless you!