To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 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 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. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)
We all struggle from one weakness or another – weaknesses that we plea, like the Apostle Paul, for the Lord to take away. Sometimes He does but far more often He allows them to remain so that His power will shine through our cracked clay pots. The only way the light shines through the vessel is through the cracks. God manifests the fullness of His power through our weaknesses. The One who gives the power gets the glory. And He is always to get the glory.
Paul initially saw his weakness as his greatest liability and pleaded for its removal. It was not until he understood Christ’s purpose in it that he saw it in a different light – a priceless asset in the cloak of a liability. We can often see ways God has manifested his power through our perplexing weaknesses. We are also more prone to deal gently with others in their weaknesses differing from our own. Also, our weaknesses force us to depend on God’s power rather than our own equipping us to build with gold, silver and costly stones rather than wood, hay or straw. There is “Something” so powerful that people see when watching believers walk unearthly through their “Valley of Baca’s” (tears) going from “strength to strength” in peace, love, hope and even joy and that “something” is our Savior.
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Hebrews 11:32-34 (NIV)
I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (NIV)