Strength in weakness

We have been confronted by our weakness over the last couple of years, but there is an opportunity to discover God’s strength. Will you take a step towards your weakness and find Jesus there?

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It’s a message I’ve been thinking about for a long time and it was something I wanted to close the

Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, ‘finally, be strong in the Lord and in his might power’ (6.10). This was the theme we chose for the Stronger conference back in January and I had an opportunity at the end of the conference to share some reflections on it. You can find the session here and I wanted to pull out a few of the key points for you in this article.

Because the question for all of us in any year and this year, is ‘how can we grow in the strength of the Lord?’. Because we live in a culture that says that you find strength in success, you find strength in beauty, in money, achievement in social media following, in celebrity, power and status and influence.

But Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus around AD 68, and God says to us as he was saying to that early church, don’t find your strength in these external things, but find your strength in the eternal, in the Lord.

Consider Jesus

Consider Jesus for a moment, the word of God, the Son of God, the same yesterday today, forever seated at God’s right hand, the name above every name. What does Philippians 2 tell us? It says that he emptied Himself, He made Himself nothing. Theologians describe this process as ‘kenosis’, that he emptied himself of glory to become one of us and like us.

Just think of it, God’s son, born as a child, born in obscurity, raised in a place called Nazareth, hanging out with sinners and the unclean, rejected by the authorities, abandoned by his friends, he became a obedient to death and died on a cross.

This was a saviour who came in weakness. He came in humility. He came in obscurity, and he came to serve you, and he came to serve Me. Do we deserve it? No, of course we don't. But that's the grace and the love of Jesus rescuing us, pursuing us searching for us.

Confront your weakness

It’s helpful to confront your weakness and be aware of your weakness, not just at the start of a year, but any time of year, and this is something we have all been doing over the last two years, we have been confronted by our weakness in different ways.

Every one of us has been touched in some way with a reminder that we're not invincible, that ultimately, we arefinite, that we're not the masters of our destiny, that we're not the captains of our future, even though we would very much like to be. We have been reminded that we are weak physically, and that we’re limited.

I was reminded of again and again when we were home-schooling during the lockdown. If ever there was a question in my mind about whether I should have been a teacher, this was the moment that clarified it for me. I have a new respect and love for teachers across the country.

We have been reminded that we are weak when it comes to technology, especially when it comes to forgetting to unmute on zoom. Even now I still forget!

I think this weakness is broadly what the disciples experienced when Jesus said to them, ‘Come follow me’. His call to follow him was effectively a call into the unknown, into weakness, into obscurity, but ultimately, into glory.

Strength in the Lord

There is an opportunity the experience of the last couple of years in all the pain and agony and challenge and frustration to remember that we are not so strong after all and to find fresh strength in the Lord. And what does the Bible mean, by ‘strength’?

For Paul writing to the church in Ephesus, ‘be Strong in the Lord and in his mighty power’, the word he is using means, ‘be empowered by the Lord’, ‘be made able by the Lord’.

We can swing two ways in this. On the one hand we can think: ‘well, I'm able, I'm going to forge ahead, in my own strength, I'm going to forge ahead in my initiative in my own power, and in my own exertion, and may God bless what I'm doing.’ The other approach is to say ‘I'm not going to do anything, God has to do it all. I’m just a spectator’.

And Paul is saying, well, actually, it's somewhere in the middle, ‘be strong in the Lord’ to follow Jesus, with your gifts, with your skills, with your abilities, with your networks with your opportunities, and as you do, find strength in the Lord. Be empowered and made able for the task in front of you.

This is to say we should become overly confident in our ability, because of course it's not all down to us. But also don't become under confident in our ability, because God wants to use us and involve us in his Kingdom work.

Strength for the next step

You may be looking at the rest of the year, the next six months you might be thinking ‘how am I going to get through?’ But God will make you able, God will make you strong.

You might think, ‘How can I step out and lead?’. Well, God will make you able.
You might think, ‘How can I show up online when I'm scared of posting on social media?’. God will make you able.

I have mentioned in other places that I was more of a consumer when it came to social media and using social media. Part of that was because I was fearful. The thought of going ‘live on Instagram’, for example, made my palms sweaty. But I felt God was leading me to be present there and I tried to follow him there.

I remember the end of my first live broadcast, my shirt was sweaty. I literally had wet patches under my arms. It wasn’t not pretty, but I knew that it was good, because I knew that there was something of responding to God’s call and finding his strength in that place.

For some of you, it’s not going live on Instagram, it’s something else, and Jesus invites you to find him in the weakness.

Where do you feel broken? Where do you feel unskilled? Where are you fearful? Could Jesus be at work in the midst of that?

Conclusion

Our hope is that through Stronger Network, in some way, you are strengthened, that you're made able through God, while being plugged into your churches, that you're filled with courage by the Holy Spirit fortified in your pursuit of him, so that we might in some way, bring the presence of Jesus to our communities, to our networks, to connections up and down the country.

As you step into the unknown, aware of your limitations, discover the presence of Jesus in a new way, be strong in the Lord, and in his mighty power. Or as God said to one young leader, Joshua, in the Old Testament, ‘Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid. For I am with you.’