PROMPTINGS: "Perfect in Weakness"

""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. 10 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 Cor. 12:7-10)

Paul begins this passage with words of comfort? In 2 Corinthians 12, he describes a "thorn in the flesh" that he pleads with God "three times" to be lifted from him. Rather than remove it, Paul is told by Jesus that God's grace is sufficient, God's power is made perfect in weakness.

That's makes sense for Paul. Paul was an apostle. The apostles are those people we read about in the New Testament - particularly in Acts - who suffered for the gospel. They were beaten, imprisoned, defamed, and even executed for the cause of Christ. It's as if our idea is this. They suffered so we don't have to. And that's true to some extent. North American Christians don't really suffer for their faith - not like Christians in India or Pakistan for instance. And for that, shouldn't we thank everyone from Paul and Peter down to the framers of our constitution (who set up legal protection for religious observance)?

So here's what I'm curious about. If God's power is made perfect in weakness - in what way do North American Christians possess power today?

We have great buildings. We have foundations that keep our churches going for years. We have boards of directors served by influential business people. We have gifted speakers. We have the "success" gospel where we pray as one author has suggested that God "increases our territories" if we pray enough for it. In fact, we have all the accoutrements of our "strong" Western culture. Interestingly, go to 10/40 mission "window" where Christianity is growing exponentially and these things are mostly absent.

Where's the weakness?

The early church sang a hymn. It went like this...

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2)

The phrase "made himself nothing" is actually translated from the Greek work kenosis - which means "emptied." Jesus emptied himself, making himself a servant. He became weak and humble and obedient - even to death on a cross - and God exalted him.

Here's what I've found as well as I've observed Christian practice. It's not our foundations, church buildings, gifted speaking, and snazzy publications that impress God. It's our becoming emptied out like Jesus and becoming weak servants. We are emptied out when nothing else matters to us but the sharing of the love of Jesus with compassion and kindness. We are emptied out when we are willing to risk those things that we believe shape our identity so that we can be formed completely in identity with Jesus. We become weak servants of hurting and lost people around us.

And here's the promise of scripture. That God's grace is made perfect in weakness. God exalts the weak and obedient servants of the world. God gives increase to the ministries of those (not just pastors!) who serve humbly and obediently with the love of Jesus.

Amen!