Note from Kat: Today’s post is written by my friend Katie. Kat…Katie. Confusing, I know. I may ask her to change her name. Nonetheless, I love this post and I pray it’s an encouragement to you!
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I pray for God to strengthen me. Over and over I plead for Him to make me stronger and better able to fulfill the callings He has on my life.
But I fail. And fail. And fail.
I pray one last time, strengthen me.
Then it hits me. I’m praying for the wrong thing. Instead of pleading for Him to strengthen me, I need to pray for Him to be my strength.
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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 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 (2 Corinthians 12:9 – 12:10 ESV)
His power is made perfect in my weakness. Wow, what a shift. Instead of asking God to remove the things that plague me—my laziness, my pride, my depression, my difficult stage of life maybe all this time I should have been praying for Him to be my strength in all these things.
So I stop.
Stop asking for Him to make me different than I am. Stop trying to be something I am not. Stop pleading for Him to take away these “thorns”.
I have had it all backwards!
I am insufficient, but His grace is sufficient.
I am weak and His power is made perfect in that weakness.
I want to hide my problems, fix them and celebrate my victories. Instead, I am to boast gladly of my weakness.
Trying to make myself strong only leads to fatigue, yet Christ’s unending power rests in me.
I am discontent with my weakness and difficulties, but I can choose to have contentment knowing He has a plan for it all, for the sake of the glory of Christ.
Strength comes through the weakness.
Lord, keep me weak, so that You might be my strength.
What weaknesses in your life do you need God to be your strength in? Are you discouraged by your blunders in motherhood, or your failed attempts to get up early to spend time with God? How can the “backwardness” of 2 Corinthians 12 help?Â
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Jesus-lover. Pastor’s wife. Mommy of three. Grace-clinger. Auburn fan.Â
Longing to equip others to walk with the Lord for a lifetime.
Co-author of Savoring Living Water: How to have an effective quiet time.
Blogs at Living Devotionally and creator of Do Not Depart where you can receive encouragement and tools to abide in God’s Word.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you, Kat! This really speaks to where we are all at. I found it especially interesting that my bible study looked at “the thorn” last week and focused on this verse. Loved your words about it. Thank you for your timely encouragement.
Melody,
Just to clarify, my friend Katie wrote the post. I forgot to write the intro and add her bio at the end. I’ve done that now. Thanks for the reminder! Just want to give credit where credit is due. Either way, I’m so glad the post encouraged you!!
Wow! What a thought! I have never looked at praying for God to be my strength, I always ask him to give me strength. I will definitely be changing my words today. Thank you!
Thanks Kat! I too pray to be filled and lean on God’s strength. My daughter and I just had a discussion about starting fresh each day (after feeling like we failed the day before). See Karen Ehman’s blog post from the 17th — it fits in so well with this one!!!
THANK YOU, Katie. Confirms so much that Abba God’s been teaching me through recent storms. He’s so good to us! Beautiful truth…
This is what I needed to read this morning! Thank you for helping me change my prayer.
Exactally what I needed to read this morning, after my quiet time last night… I actually flipped past that 2 Corinthians passage and pondered it briefly before moving on to 1 John. Just enough to get me prepared to hear it this morning. Thanks.
So cool how God works that out!
Thank you Katie (and Kat)!! Love your vulnerability…as always. Particularly as I feel you are speaking right to me. Such a small change…praying for strength vs. praying for Him to be my strength…but that makes all the difference. Clinging to this today!!
Wow. Be glad for your weaknesses. I love it {kinda} when God works in an upside-down fashion.
So true and I find myself praying “God, give me strength”. Thanks for the eye-opener. I think I need to go pray again.
Such a needed reminder at such a draining time in my life right now. Thank you so much for speaking the Truth into my life today and pointing me back to Him. I have been praying it backwards and wearing myself out. Great devotional.
You are welcome, Polly. So thankful the Lord opens our eyes to His truth. Trying to “strengthen” myself has only led to weariness and failure.
Beautiful reminder and it came just when I needed it! Thank you!
Lord keep me weak so that you might be my strength – thank you for this arrow prayer. I am struggling with something I thought the door was closed and locked on and cannot tell you how encouraging this post is. it’s His reassuring voice coming through loud and clear.
Blessings – to both K’s!
This is so timely in my life.
“What weaknesses in your life do you need God to be your strength in?”
Impatience with my children. Allowing myself to fear the unknown more than God.
“Are you discouraged by your blunders in motherhood, or your failed attempts to get up early to spend time with God?”
Absolutely . . . on both counts.
“How can the “backwardness†of 2 Corinthians 12 help?”
For YEARS I prayed “Lord, help me . . . bless me . . . strengthen me . . .” Only a few short weeks ago I realized I had been praying for the wrong thing (just as you wrote)! I wasn’t sure how to pray for the opposite, since that’s what I wanted . . . for the Lord’s power to be the strength in my life . . . but I didn’t want to try to put it in my own limited words. I felt as though He has a gloriously bright path laid out for me (difficult and long, but full of joy), and I had to turn it all over into His hands. And you know what? My life has been turned sideways, shaken, and a few big things placed gently into it . . . and it’s amazing how much better it is now!
You are so right. I have to remind myself often, that WE don’t do things with God’s HELP, we are actually the hands and feet and eyes that help GOD accomplish His plans. So we already have the strength of God always when we are in alignment with His will. Ah that human ego will have us thinking “backwards” all the time.
Yes! I love this perspective. As I fight my illness…….He is my strength! Wonderful.
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