THE GLORY OF WEAKNESS
BREAD
2 He
grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He
had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that
we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows,
and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was
despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our
sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But
he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has
turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He
was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did
not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who
can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken. 9 He
was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he
had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet
it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the
LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his
days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. 11 After
the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by
his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their
iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life
unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of
many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:2-12 (NIV)
26 Brothers,
think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human
standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak
things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He
chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things
that are not--to nullify the things that are, 29 so
that no one may boast before him. 1
Corinthians 1:26-29 (NIV)
9 But
he said to me, “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 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)
7 But
we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is
from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not
destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 2 Corinthians
4:7-10 (NIV)
26 In
the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought
to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words
cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s
will. Romans 8:26-27 (NIV)
25 For
the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is
stronger than man’s strength. 1 Corinthians
1:25 (NIV)
6 So
he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor
by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty. Zechariah 4:6 (NIV)
BUTTER
“Complete weakness and dependence will always
be the occasion for the Spirit of God to manifest His power.” Oswald Chambers
“Our strength is discovered in our dependency upon the One
Who spoke the world into being and Who loves us with an everlasting love. It is His all sufficient power and not our weak
strength we are to lean upon. The horse
is made ready for battle but victory rests with the Lord.” BHY
“When God is our strength, it is strength
indeed; when our strength is our own, it is only weakness.” St. Augustine
“A primary qualification for
serving God with any amount of success, and for doing God’s work well and
triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness.
When God’s warrior marches forth to battle, strong in his own might,
when he boasts, ‘I know that I shall conquer, my own right arm and my
conquering sword shall get unto me the victory’, defeat is not far
distant. God will not go forth with that
man who marches in his own strength. He
who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for ‘it is not by might,
nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts’. They who go forth to fight, boasting of their
prowess, shall return with their gay banners trailed in the dust, and their
armour stained with disgrace. Those who
serve God must serve Him in His own way, and in His strength, or He will never
accept their service. That which man
doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth He casteth away;
He will only reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by
grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love.
God will empty out all that thou hast before He will put His own into
thee; He will first clean out the granaries before He will fill them with the
finest of the wheat……Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and
your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.” C. H. Spurgeon
“The entertaining of any worldly lust, and indulgence of any
known willful sin, is an accursed thing, by which we are deprived of the power
of God, and cannot stand before our enemies.
Behold, therefore the severity of God, and be more earnest. Make all haste to flee from the lust of the
world, especially from the lust of the eye, which is the love of money. Examine thyself closely in other things, and
whatever sinful lust harbors in thy breast, be faithful to put it off, and flee
from it, else you must not wonder at your being so weak in spirit. He that does not resist the sinful motions of
his heart, will very easily give a loose to his hands and tongue; but he that
immediately subdues the inward corruptions, will certainly be preserved from
their breaking out in any sinful actions.
O Lord, deliver me from all accursed things, and keep my heart always
under thy closest inspection and discipline.
Amen.”
K. H. Von Bogatzky
“God often chooses to shake the earth
through our weakness to demonstrate it is not from our strength that He draws
rather from His own invincible might.”
BHY
“All God’s giants have been weak men who did
great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.” Hudson Taylor
“In all the acts of the Christian’s life, whether it be the act of
consecrating one’s self to Christ, or the act of daily prayer, or the act of
constant submission, or preaching the gospel, or ministering to the necessities
of the poor, or comforting the desponding, in all these the Christian finds his
weakness and his powerlessness, unless he is clothed about with the Spirit of
God.” C. H. Spurgeon
“The martyrs shook the powers of darkness with the irresistible power of
weakness.” John Milton
“The
leaders God chooses are often more broken than strong… more damaged than whole…
more troubled than secure. God’s greatest leaders do not rise up from a bed of
roses; they rise from beds of nails. I have come to realize that God’s most
effective leaders don’t rise to power in spite of their weakness; they
lead with power because of
their weakness.” Joni Eareckson Tada
“How the weak have been used for the good
of the church! Christ did not choose
eloquent orators, or men of authority in the courts of kings and emperors, but
twelve poor labourers, and fishermen.
This is the most ridiculous course that can be imagined, in appearance,
for such a design. And yet, in how short
a time was the gospel spread in all the kingdoms of the world! John Flavel
HEART
SAVOR
- ·
God chooses the
foolish things to shame the wise.
- ·
Christians have
this treasure in our “jars of clay” to show that this all-surpassing power is
from Him and not us.
- ·
Our strength is
mere weakness in His sight.
