Devotionals from my Bible app: How Weakness Becomes Strength (2 Corinthians 12:9)

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9, NKJV

How Weakness Becomes Strength


Think of a situation you wish you could change, and then imagine what the apostle Paul must have been going through in 2 Corinthians 12.

Paul was suffering, and so he repeatedly begged God to remove his pain. But God doesn’t change Paul’s situation. Instead, God tells Paul that His “grace is enough” for him.

"Charis," the ancient Greek word for “grace,” conveyed the favor God showed humanity when He sent Jesus to earth for us.

Before Jesus, people couldn’t draw near to God on their own. But Jesus made a way for anyone to experience intimacy with God. A relationship with God isn’t something we earn—it’s a free gift we receive when we accept that Jesus died for us and rose from the dead.

So when God tells Paul that His “grace is sufficient,” what He’s essentially saying is: “I am enough for you.”

God could meet Paul’s needs because God was all Paul needed—and God was with Paul. The influence Paul had was only because God chose to show off His power through him.

Like Paul, we can then boast about how weak we are so that way God gets the credit for every great thing that happens to us.

Our situations might not change, but our cry often changes from, “God please remove this suffering,” to, “God, when I suffer—show me how You are using this for Your glory and my good.”

So whatever you’re facing, know that God is near. He sees you, and He loves you. Take some time today and ask God to show you how He is empowering you. Draw near to Him, and let Him strengthen you.

Note after sharing the devotional: today’s focus verse is what helps me begin to embrace Philippians 4:13, which I’ve not-so-secretly wrestled with here on this blog. Before I proceed, I want to share both verses so you, the reader, can see them together in the same context as I do:

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9, NKJV

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13, NKJV

The tip of the resentment I’ve felt regarding Philippians 4:13 has had to do with other people abusing this verse to equate their own expectations of me with that of God’s (regardless of whether or not their expectations actually align with His). The root of the resentment goes back to a lifetime of wanting to be able to do all sorts of different things; but for one reason or another, I have either not been able to perform it, or I was eventually able to accomplish it but only on a much slower timeline than expected or hoped. Then there’s the struggle of whether the expectations of people I don’t completely trust should be considered superior to mine. Oh, so You won’t let me do it for me, but You’ll force me to somehow be able to do the same thing for them?? That kind of mindset. (By the way, that’s not a Godly mindset! I’m only sharing it to expose to the Light some of the darkest thoughts that have come up. So of course, I choose to repent of it, and the unbelief that exists at its root, so as to allow the Lord of my life to change and transform me.)

Then, finally, there’s the context of having generally been smaller and weaker than almost every other kid I grew up with, even more stark when considering that, due to being held back in kindergarten, I spent most of my schooling years a year older than almost all of my peers -- and still being shorter, smaller, and weaker than almost all of them. Every day I have been reminded of my weakness, even well into adulthood, even though the reasons have changed over the years. It’s still to the point that, even now when I am placed in a situation where I happen to be stronger, more intelligent, more skilled, and even in some cases more accomplished than my peers, aspects of it still don’t feel real.

[Interruption: here is where I might expect someone to chime in and say something along the lines of: Faith over feelings. Don’t let your feelings dictate your faith; you need to make your faith dictates your feelings. My response to that is simply this: I’ve had faith regarding quite a few impossible hopes and dreams for much of my life, thanks to Luke 1:37 which I’ve been familiar with almost all my life. I’ve even had stubborn faith regarding quite a few of these things. And yet, not only has life still not worked out to where the things for which I’ve had stubborn faith have come to pass, but also that 1.) the answers to far too many prayers concerning things that were important to me were “no”, and 2.) when God did answer them (besides just saying “no”), His response was often also to challenge the roots and the circumstances in which I had held that aforementioned stubborn faith. As such, many of the feelings I’ve had regarding some of these things of which I speak were borne out of these moments. In conclusion, my counter-argument to the above statement faith over feelings, etc is that, actually, a lot of my feelings about things were borne from forced correction of previous thinking and feeling in which many of my previous hopes and expectations were created. At the end of the day, when I run into someone new in my life who has no context for previous seasons in my life, and that person attempts to play the faith over feelings card or the Philippians 4:13 card, I am in no way inclined to believe or trust that they are operating within God’s will, and rather that they are operating on their own personal feelings and agenda but pretending as if they were speaking on God’s behalf.]

So as not to end this post on a bitter note, I want to share what God has done in my heart to allow me to receive Philippians 4:13 in such a way that He can continue His work within me. The next batch of verses (especially first couple) have become part of a cache of key verses to help me understand and trust what God is doing:

being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; Philippians 1:6, NKJV

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13, NKJV

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13, NKJV

During my early years at the Vineyard, I often heard the phrase that in my weakness Christ is strong. Given my having lived a lifetime of being (and being considered) weak compared with just about everyone else in my life (family members, teachers, peers, other types of mentors) on all sorts of levels (and not just physically), the Biblical truth of Christ being perfected in our weakness was and still is a message of hope for me. I cannot compete with anyone else -- and for years, nay, decades, I tried and tried and tried, thanks to that stubborn faith -- and have had to learn to be content with my weakness as the tool to be used for God’s glory.

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9, NKJV

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:11-13, NKJV

Closing statement of truth: Therefore I will gladly boast in my weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me and strengthen me.

Prayer: God, thank You for giving me Yourself. Thank You for empowering me to face whatever comes my way. Help me to remember that even when I’m weak, You are still strong. And You can take the hardest of situations and turn it around for Your glory and my good. So please help me to glorify You with all that I am. Let my weaknesses become windows that Your glory shines through. In Jesus’s name, Amen.