(Note: this page is intended for Christians; if you are not a Christian you are free to read but this page is not intended for you)
2 Corinthians 12:10
“...For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
While some people insist, they are invincible and there is nothing that can stop them, many of us realize that compared to the rest of life on earth (and even beyond), and the vastness of the universe we seem to be very small, weak, and pretty helpless creatures:
And God completely confirms this is the case in his word: This is One thing God seems to love about humans is their natural weakness and especially their ability to acknowledge that they are weak (if they are honest/humble enough to admit it).
In fact Through Job 38-41 God pretty much does nothing but (rhetorically) point out to Job how weak he is and how little he does not control/know:
God points out how young Job’s life is compared to him and his angles ancient lifespans so far:
Job 38:4-7
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?…while…all the angels shouted for joy?”
How little Job knows about the Earth and how little he has seen/knows due to his human limitations (human weakness):
Job 38:16-18
“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea (to the bottom of the ocean) or walked in the recesses of the deep (bottom of the ocean)?…[and]… Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth (traveled all around the entire Earth and know how long and wide it is)?”
How little Job can control:
Job 38:32-34
“Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons (can you control how the Earth tilts and rotates) …Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water (can you make it rain)?…”
Job 39:9
“Will the wild ox consent to serve you (can you get a wild animal to do your will)?…Will it till the valleys behind you?…Will you leave your heavy work to it? Can you trust it to haul in your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?…”
And especially how little Job could change about his present situation through his own power:
Job 40:10-11
“...[can you] adorn yourself with glory and splendor[?] and clothe yourself in honor and majesty[?]. Unleash the fury of your wrath, look at all who are proud and bring them low[?].”
God points out Job could not do or did not know/see any of this:
he had only been alive 50-70 or so years so did not get to witness God forming the Earth: an event that happened at least over a 1,000 years before Job was born! (Along with many other historical events).
Due to his human limitations (specifically in this case that is only being able to breath air and not having the means to travel the entire Earth) he could not go to and see the bottom of the ocean nor travel the entire Earth.
He could not control the rotation/tilt of the Earth, he could not control the weather, he could not control a single wild animal to do his will; He couldn't even change anything about his sad situation of being very sick!
God describes Job as a weak pathetic human being who has very little control of anything compared to him:
And the exact same thing could be said about all other humans!
We have experience so little in our short lives, we are limited on what we can do and where we can go and thus what we can see and know, we can control very little in our world and can control very little in our own lives:
God wants us to know we are all weak pathetic human beings who has very little control of anything!
There are even more powerful animals that God created on Earth that could easily overpower a human in a fight and possibly kill them: there are even some animals that even if the human has deadly weapons to try to kill the animal it will not be enough to fight it!
Like this fierce animal God calls "Leviathan" that skin was so tough and hard it could not be killed/hurt by iron weapons like swords or arrows and that could kill a human easily
Job 41:1-29
“Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook or tie down its tongue with a rope?…If you lay a hand on it, you will remember the struggle and never do it again! Any hope of subduing it is false; the mere sight of it is overpowering. No one is fierce enough to rouse it…When it rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before its thrashing. The sword that reaches it has no effect, nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin. Iron it treats like straw and bronze like rotten wood. Arrows do not make it flee; slingstones are like chaff to it. A club seems to it but a piece of straw; it laughs at the rattling of the lance.,…”
The message is clear here: humans are weak creatures in many ways!
And this is especially true for Christians that face generally even more discomforts, dangers, and threats that they cannot control, or let alone even change:
As Jesus said to the very first Christians (his personal 12 disciples) because they follow him and made him their king everyone (even their own family members!) would hate them for it and try to accuse them of crimes and try to persecute them:
Luke 21:12
“…Everyone will hate you because of me…they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors [in trial], and all on account of my name… You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death.”
And Paul says this does not just apply to only the 12 disciples/original followers of Jesus it applies to all Christians!
2 Timothy 3:10-12
“…everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus (be a Christian) will be persecuted,…”
If you didn’t realize this as a Christian before, then it’s definitely important to realize it now; let’s face facts: we are weak!
Why admitting weakness is not fun at all, it’s important to understand that you are weak in many senses of the word (weak in strength, very fragile, unable to control a situation, etc.).
Fortunately ,for Christians, that weakness (along with persecutions) does not necessarily have to all be a bad thing, it is in fact, a good thing.
Because:
God’s/Jesus’s power is made known in a human’s weakness
So now that we know we are weak, it’s also important to realize our weakness glorifies God’s power! While all humans go through hardships of all types in their lives unable to control it, there is a massive difference when a Christian goes through hardships and a regular human goes through them:
Though Christians might go through much more hardships than other humans and are just as helpless/weak in these situations as any other human, the key is that a Christian does not face these hardships alone nor are we facing them for no reason!
Because Christians have Jesus as their king and have his holy spirit inside of them, Jesus is with Christians and does not let them go through hardships for no reason:
whatever they are suffering from (especially if it’s because they are suffering because of serving/following Jesus) they are suffering for Jesus’s sake and can take heart knowing that they are suffering doing the right thing and also that Jesus will honor and reward them for it one day in the future; this is why Paul says he is happy to suffer in his life for Christ’s will for him:
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
“... for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties."
When Christians suffer for trying to do God’s will, they will glorify God/Jesus through their physical sacrifice (of getting hurt or even killed) and through their pain/death more people will give their lives to Jesus, this is why Paul says:
Philippians 1:20-21
“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed (of the gospel), but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life (preaching the gospel or even being physically hurt by it) or by death(being murdered). For (because) …to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Suffering because of human weakness can also keep a Christian from becoming too proud of themselves (by making them realize their weakness and hindering their pride by suffering):
2 Corinthians 12:7
“In order to keep me from becoming conceited(prideful), I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me (a situation where someone or something tortured him).”
He even begged Jesus to take this pain away but Jesus refused because his power in Paul was being glorified through his human suffering (probably because this kept him from becoming prideful and taking all his glory):
2 Corinthians 12:8
“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.’”
All these reasons are why, even though we are weak and suffer in situations we cannot control, because Jesus is for us and will honor our sacrifice and make sure we do not suffer for nothing, we can be happy in suffering in hardships because it means we glorify Jesus’s power through our weakness:
This is why Paul says even though it’s uncomfortable to be weak and suffer in trials, he is proud of his human weakness/suffering because it glorifies Jesus’s/God’s power through him:
2 Corinthians 12:7-9
“…Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me (and be glorified through me). “
Even though many Christians might suffer in situations beyond their control (and possibly might even die) Jesus is able to rescue them out of an impossible situation or also protect them from things that could hurt them otherwise with his power to control all things:
Jesus rescued Paul many times: who often went through hardships of all types; some that could have easily killed him:
When Paul (and also Silas) got in trouble for preaching the Gospel and were accused, verbally attacked by a large crowd, got into legal trouble and had to stand on trial for preaching the gospel, were condemned as guilty and whipped horribly then finally thrown in jail and strapped tightly into a stock:
Acts 16:19-24
“...they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, ‘These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.’ The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer…put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.”
Jesus gave them the strength to overcome the pain and sadness of the situation; because they began to sing to God and pray to God (that also got the attention of the prisoners):
Acts 16:25
“...Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”
Not only did Jesus give them strength, but he also freed them by a miraculous earthquake that opened all the prison cells and made all the prisoners chains drop:
Acts 16:26
“Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”
Paul and Silas could not change their situation on their own: they were weak and helpless to do anything: BUT through Jesus’s power they were miraculously saved from this situation. No human could have freed themselves from this situation alone: so, in their human weakness Jesus(and God)’s power was glorified through Paul’s and Silas’s Human weakness and many people (including the Jailer that put them into jail and all his family) believed the Gospel and got saved!
Acts 16:34
“The jailer…had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.”
Paul’s (and Silas's) weakness made them strong!
When Paul was forced to sail on a boat to Italy, the boat got caught up in a horrible storm for many days that threatened to sink the boat and kill everyone on board (by drowning in the violent waves) and they began to lose all hope of surviving this storm:
Acts 27:13-20
“When a gentle south wind began to blow, they…sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along…We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard…When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.”
God sent an Angel to tell Paul that they would all survive from the storm and only the ship would be destroyed, so Paul encourage everyone onboard to stop panicking because his God told him everyone would live:
Acts 27:21-25
“...Paul stood up before them and said: ‘Men…now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul…God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.’”
And through his power God made sure no one died and that they made it to shore in peace, even though some of the Roman guards tried to plot to kill the prisoners to keep them from escaping, the centurion respected Paul for helping them with the word from his God and spared his (and the rest of the prisoners) lives:
Acts 27:39-44
“When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground.The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.”
Though Paul in his human weakness had no control of the storm or situation (nor any other human on this boat) that would have most likely killed all of them by drowning, God/Jesus’s power could save Paul along with everyone onboard from death at sea: and because Paul served God he told him that he would spare him and everyone else and let him tell everyone of God’s will:
Because Paul told them this, he was respected (and even spared from murder) by the centurion by his foreknowledge from his God that no human could have known (or done) by themselves in their human limitations.
When Paul was throwing wood on a fire, a viper (a very venomous type of snake) all of a sudden came out of the wood on the fire and bit Paul: injecting him with deadly venom:
Acts 28:3
“...Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.”
(When the locals saw Paul had been bitten by a venomous snake they though the goddess (female god) of justice was cursing him for murdering someone and expected him to die from the venom soon:
Acts 28:4-6
“When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, ‘This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.’… The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead;…”)
With Jesus’s/God’s power, he was cured from the venom that had been injected inside of his arm (or God did not allow the snake to inject any venom) and therefore did not cause him to suffer or die from the venom:
Acts 28:5
“…But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects….”
When the locals saw Paul was still fine hours later, they were amazed that someone survived the deadly venom of a viper bite and then thought he was a god:
Acts 28:6
“but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.”
Once Paul was bitten, there was nothing he could really do to stop the venom from destroying his body and killing him in his human weakness: but through Jesus’s/God’s power he was able to live from the deadly bite that would have killed any other human otherwise!
Even when he was about to die by being beaten to death by stoning (where people throw large sharp rocks at a condemned individual) from the angry crowed and from damage done to his body:
Acts 14:19
“some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.”
God’s power (through prayer) healed him from the damage inflicted on his weak human body and did what no one else could do!
Acts 14:20
“But after the disciples had gathered around him (in prayer), he got up and went back into the city.”
In his own human weakness, he would have died from the massive damage done to his body, but through God’s power he was able to be healed and live:
Through Paul’s human weaknesses, God’s/Jesus’s power was glorified.
This is why Paul says:
2 Corinthians 12:5-10
“…I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses…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,… For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Paul’s weakness was his strength by God’s/Jesus’s power through him!
And just like Paul (and all others who have/do follow God) even though we are weak, we can choose to accept, confess, and even boast about our weaknesses: not just to be honest with ourselves, but to also talk instead about Jesus/God who is strong and powerful enough to help us in our weakness:
When we do this, we can go through any situation with the realization that we are not in control and are very weak creatures but realize we are glorifying God through acknowledging we are suffering for his cause and/or our weakness in bad situations/pain are glorifying God’s power (that he might even save us from with his miraculous power!)
Though you are weak that can be your strength with God’s power with you!