Although I
ended cancer treatment in March, I am still very tired and limited in
what I can accomplish as a full-time professor and in my many
relationships with friends, relatives, and neighbors.
My
experience of weakness has been admittedly frustrating at times, but it
has also been, by God’s good and gracious design, very beneficial for me
and others. God is pleased to use our various kinds of weakness and
limitation to remind us of important truths and refine our trust in him.
1. Weakness reminds us that our very life depends on God.
Weakness
reminds us that our lives are but a vapor, that all flesh is like
grass. We are reminded that God provides each and every breath to our
lungs and beat of the heart. He has numbered our days (Job 14:5; Psalm
139:16). He is the Creator who upholds all things, even our puny little
magnificent lives, by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3). We cannot
take for granted even the mere fact of our lives.
This reminder bears the fruit of gratitude and humility.
Too
often, when things are going well, we are tempted to forget how
dependent we are upon God for anything and everything (Deuteronomy
6:10–12). Savings accounts, good salaries, ministry success, healthy
bodies, or a charming personality can become the horses and chariots in
which we put our trust (Psalm 20:7). When our weakness reminds us that
we depend on God and his providence for life and breath, we find joy
simply in knowing that we live by his good pleasure.
2. Weakness reminds us that God will give us new bodies.
Our
aches and pains and inabilities point us to our future perfected body
and soul. Feeling like you have one foot in the grave reminds you that
you have one foot, already, in glory. Our longing for the resurrection
is increased by weakness.
As J.I. Packer writes,
“Our new body . . . will match and perfectly express our perfected new
heart, that is, our renewed moral and spiritual nature and character.”
Our present weakness increases our yearning for the day when Christ
gives us a new body that “will never deteriorate, but will keep its
newness for all eternity.” The Christian hope, says Packer, “is
understood not in the weak sense of optimistic whistling in the dark,
but in the strong sense of certainty about what is coming because God
himself has promised it.”
This reminder bears the fruit of hopefulness and endurance in faith.
Romans
5:1–5 says those who have learned to rejoice in their sufferings will
endure through trials, trusting God and growing in Christlikeness. That
is because they look back to God’s reconciling mercy at the cross and forward
to their full and final deliverance at Christ’s return. Romans 8:25
says that those who hope for the setting right of all creation, by the
Spirit at work in them, wait for that inheritance with patience.
3. Weakness reminds us that we deserve wrath, but receive grace.
All of
creation, ourselves included, suffers corruption, pain, and weakness
because of the sin of our first parents (Romans 8:18–21). And each of us
individually has earned the just wrath of God for our own multitude of
sins (Romans 3:23), let alone a little suffering in this life. We don’t
deserve a weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17), but a weight of wrath.
Yet this
world and our lives abound with so many good gifts from God. And we
Christians have the best gift, Christ, who is our life and our eternal
treasure. We have been spared God’s righteous wrath, redeemed, forgiven
by God, reconciled to him, justified, adopted into his family. What
mercy!
This reminder bears the fruit of sympathy and kindness.
The
weak, being reminded of God’s tender mercy and forbearance toward them,
are assisted by the Spirit to better embody Ephesians 4:32–5:2: “Be kind
to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ
forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And
walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant
offering and sacrifice to God.”
4. Weakness refines our trust in God’s wise and loving providence.
We learn
obedience to God as we experience that nothing can separate us from his
Spirit. God never leaves us nor forsakes us (Joshua 1:9; Hebrews 13:5),
no matter how difficult things become. We learn that he knows exactly
what he is doing at all times, what he is up to through our trials, even
when we can’t comprehend it.
So we
grumble a little less about our given lot. We learn a bit more
consistency in submission to our Savior and Lord, no matter what he
brings our way. Our stiff necks grow a bit more flexible. We grow in the
grace and knowledge of the Lord (2 Peter 3:18).
In Finishing Our Course with Joy,
Packer defines spiritual maturity like this: “Spiritual maturity is a
deep, well-tested relationship to our triune God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, and a quality of relationship with both believers and
unbelievers that embraces concern, sympathy, warmth, care, wisdom,
insight, discernment, and understanding.”
This lesson bears the fruit of neither thinking more highly, nor less, of others than we ought.
There are various kinds of weak believers: the sick, disabled, elderly, poor, those not
intellectually gifted, those with unimpressive occupations, the
socially marginalized (to whom little opportunity is given and from whom
little is expected). Some of the most sympathetic, caring, and wise
people I have been privileged to meet and know fit one or more of those
descriptions. Their relationship with God has been tested and their
character refined.
Our
weakness reminds us that the marks of spiritual maturity are not the
abilities lauded by the world, like productivity or being a great public
speaker. God chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise,
and what is weak to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). So let us
move toward such people not merely to serve them but to learn from them.
Study God at work in their lives. Look through their limitations to
Christ inside. Listen to them gladly testify to God’s goodness, grace,
and glory.
The Weak Will Conquer the World
All
throughout the Bible, we see that God loves to draw attention to himself
and grow the trust of his people by working despite and through their
weaknesses and limitations. Consider barren Sarah and Rachel, bumbling
Moses, Gideon’s small band, the young virgin Mary, and blue-collar
Peter, among others. Jesus himself, the Lamb who was slain, ultimately
demonstrates that it is meek sheep who conquer and win the world.
The
great — and ironic — wisdom of the cross is that God chooses the
foolish, weak, low, and despised to shame the strong and shut the mouths
of the proud. God uses our weaknesses to remind us of important gospel
truths and to refine our trust in him.
