Unexpected Delight

What kinds of things bring you delight? Pause for a moment and try to recall the last time you felt sheer joy. Was it with a person? Was it a circumstance? Was it an unexpected surprise? Was it an event? When was the last time you felt pure delight and what was was the catalyst that precipitated it?

The Apostle Paul, who wrote a respectable portion of the New Testament, tells us what he delighted in.
“….I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)

I can’t help but wonder, were any of these things on your list? When was the last time you were thrilled about feeling weak and not up to a task? How about insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties, do you find yourself rejoicing when faced with those kinds of things?

Paul’s bold assertions came from something that he understood and experienced that we as New Testament believers often miss.
“But he (God) said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,’” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Paul knew that God’s power was never more evident in His life then when he was weak. In the age we live in, strength is usually equated with power. The stronger you are physically or financially the more power you wield. Sometimes I think that mentality seeps its way into the mindset of the church. We get frustrated with our inadequacies and weaknesses when those are the very things that God will work through. We tend to yield to our strengths and what is comfortable rather then stepping out in the areas we are less proficient. Can you imagine the power that we could generate if we stepped out in the kind of faith that actually believed that God could work through our weaknesses?

Do any of these weaknesses resonate with you?
I am not smart enough. My grace is sufficient!
I am not gifted enough. My grace is sufficient!
I am physically too ill to serve God. My grace is sufficient!
My husband is Jewish and not saved. My grace is sufficient!
I have a wretched past. My grace is sufficient!
Every one of those rebuttals was verbalized by my very own mouth at some point in my walk with Christ. I have found countless excuses not to step out in faith and to walk in what He could do because I was blinded by my own distorted perception of what God’s definition of weak is. Paul, however, was very clear about it.

“For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 1 Corinthians 12:10b)

Paul understood that when he was serving Christ, God would provide Him with what He needed. So much so that he boasted “ all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9b)

Do you have a desire to sense the power of God working in your life? Then I propose that you give Him your weakness and ask Him to pour His power in them. Ask Him to show you how to use the things that you feel weak in for His glory. By the authority of His written word, that is a prayer that He will answer. And you, my friend, get yourself ready, because you have just set yourself up to experience an out pouring of pure delight.

God comes in where my helplessness begins.
Oswald Chambers