Purpose Driven Life - Day 35

Day 35  --  God's Power in Your Weakness

 

Everyone has weaknesses. In fact, you have a bundle of flaws and imperfections: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. Usually we deny our weaknesses, defend them, excuse them, hide them, and resent them. This prevents God from using them the way he desires.

A weakness is any limitation that you inherited or have no power to change. It may be a physical limitation; it may be an emotional limitation, or it may be a talent or intellectual limitation. When you think of the limitation in your life, you may be tempted to conclude, "God could never use me." But God is never limited by our limitations. In fact, he enjoys putting his great power into ordinary containers. Like common pottery, we are fragile and flawed and break easily. But God will use us if we allow him to work through our weaknesses.

Sometimes, however, God turns strength into a weakness in order to use us even more. Jacob was a manipulator who spent his life scheming and then running from the consequences. One night he wrestled with God and said, "I'm not letting go until you bless me." God said, "All right," but then he grabbed Jacob's thigh and dislocated his hip. What is the significance of that? God touched Jacob's strength and turned it into a weakness. From that day forward, Jacob walked with a limp so he could never run away again. It forced him to lean on God whether he liked it or not. If you want God to bless you and use you greatly, you must be willing to walk with a limp the rest of your life, because God uses weak people