Beset With Weakness

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2 Kings 23; Hebrews 5; Joel 2; Psalm 142

How often are we told to focus on our strengths? There are, in fact, countless tools that help us identify and live from them. While I do not disagree with the strategy, focusing only on our strengths masks the reality of our lives. You see, we are all born into a fallen world, subject to sin.  Relative to God, we are weak.  Hebrews 5:2 says that we are “beset with weakness.” The risk, therefore, in living from our strengths is that we become fully reliant on our flesh. The results of which are well documented in the Bible.

  • Self-Glory
  • Admiration of others
  • Subject to error
  • Subject to death

Contrast living from our strengths with embracing our weakness.  Jesus, for example, chose the latter.  Rather than embracing achievement and soliciting the praises of man, he embraced his weakness.  We find the evidence in his prayers.  He “offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him” (Hebrews 5:7). The result? God heard him “because of his reverence” (v7).  God, therefore, bestowed upon Jesus perfection.  In perfection, Jesus would no longer be subject to error or death.

Jesus submission to God was so perfect, that he also became our eternal source of salvation. He is the ultimate proof that weakness is not something to run from. Instead, we are to offer our weakness to God “with prayers, supplications, and with loud cries to him who is able to save us.” Just as God honored Jesus reverence, Jesus showers our weakness with grace.  Not just any grace, but a grace that is so powerful that it conquers death.