“What they understood as weakness deserves my every praise.”
That’s a line from the CityAlight song, “His Glory and My Good.” It’s what sparked this article. The line is talking about the cross. Jesus was mocked hanging there. People challenged Him to come down to show His strength and power.
He was displaying His every strength in His weakness on the cross. Think of the strength to choose the cross and to keep choosing it until it was finished.
What strength He had to die for their forgiveness instead of speaking the word and having the mockers struck dead! What strength to submit to His Father and the perfect plan and not looking to Himself, even when feeling abandoned under the weight of the separation of sin.
He trusted His God. He endured in the strength of the Spirit, and so do we.
It takes a lot of strength to remain in weakness, to make the choice of weakness.
There are ways to get out from under a lot of situations. We can get into debt to get the money we need. We can get medicines to relieve a symptom. We can consult an expert, hire a handyman, etc.
We feel like we’ve taken care of something, but we’ve just solved one problem and maybe created more in the process. Debt is certainly a problem. Medicines have side effects and don’t necessarily get to the root. Even if the handyman does a great job, time and money were spent. What were God’s plans with that time and money? Did you consider?
It takes a lot more strength to stay in weakness, in need, in not knowing how and when things will get better. But that’s the true place of rejoicing.
We thank God when we get the “fix” to a problem, even if we made it happen ourselves. But we’ll just lose our thanksgiving when the next problem comes.
The place of “rejoice always” and “give thanks in all circumstances” is knowing our God’s strength in our every weakness. It’s knowing His goodness and absolute perfection in everything. The “fix” isn’t what we want. It’s His perfect will working out perfectly in and through our lives.
Our will isn’t our ease and comfort and things getting back to normal. Our will is God’s will being done. Our desire is to see God glorified and the many come to righteousness. God’s view is from eternity. He’s the one with the plan. Wait on Him. Be of good courage and wait.
Rejoice in the weakness of the “helpless” waiting. We have a God ready to help and mighty to save. Wait in rejoicing and thanksgiving because you aren’t really waiting on something to happen. It’s already happening. He’s already working out His perfect plan.
Praise God!
The Tribulation 