When We Are Weak He Is Strong
What a comfort and blessing it is to know that when we are weak, the Lord is strong! As we stand for the restoration of our marriages, there are bound to be days when we feel like we just can’t stand another day, but those are days we should rejoice and take those lying thoughts from the devil captive and make them obedient to Christ! And we do that by remembering and confessing the following passages of scripture that promise when we are weak, He is strong!
Isaiah 40:28-29
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
2 Corinthians 13:4 (NLT)
Although he died on the cross in weakness, he now lives by the mighty power of God. We, too, are weak, but we live in him and have God’s power–the power we use in dealing with you.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 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.
Of course, the most encouraging verse we all tend to rely on when we feel like we can’t go on is Philippians 4:13, which says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But as I copied that, the Lord just gave me an awesome new revelation or insight about it, which is that our strength through Christ is directly related to and dependent on our understanding of the word, which makes perfect sense based on what these verses in John 1 tell us:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
Without realizing it, we’ve probably all proven that before with a perfect illustration of exactly how it works, by asking the Lord to speak to us about something in particular when we REALLY needed to hear from Him, and then randomly opening the Bible to see what He led us to. That happened to me last July when I asked the Lord to show me if something was true or not, and He led me to Nehemiah 6, which I didn’t understand at first, because it seemed totally unrelated to what I wanted to know. When I realized what He was showing me, I couldn’t believe it, because I had just discovered that after many years of believing I was divorced that I was probably legally separated instead, and was asking the Lord to help me understand and know the truth. But verse 9 got my attention, because it says They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.” But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” I was totally blown away, because there’s NO doubt that being legally married instead of legally divorced is a much stronger hand when standing for marriage restoration, especially when your husband is planning to get married in a matter of weeks! That made me a lot more interested in REALLY reading Nehemiah 6 again, and I couldn’t believe what I had missed! The whole chapter is about the incredible opposition to the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, and how it was eventually rebuilt! So there’s a lot in this chapter anyone standing for marriage restoration can relate to and it’s very encouraging, as well as the Lord’s promise in Psalm 12:5, which says Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will protect them from those who malign them.”
As with everything else in God’s plan and purpose, 1 Peter 4:11 reveals why the Lord wants us to rely on HIS strength and not ours, because it says If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Getting to the place where we realize that we CANNOT do it ourselves is a GOOD thing, because that’s when we’ll FINALLY give it to the Lord to do! Our part is to learn the word, believe the word, pray the word, confess the word, and then expect and watch the Lord work, as Joyce Meyer said in her TV message today. So please watch and learn how All Things Are Possible – Part I!