"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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me" - (2Co 12:9 ESV).
How do we know what are we made of? How can we say we are a survivor? Under what circumstance can we discover our strength, or weakness for that matter? Only in trying and difficult times.
I have heard or read stories of people being able to carry a modestly-sized refrigerator out of their burning homes. I also heard stories of some who are able to jump over a high fence to run away from danger - maybe a dog or someone who's running amok. Negative circumstances have a way of highlighting what is good and strong about people, though they may also bring their worst to the surface.
But there's another reason why negative circumstances can be welcomed as what happened to Apostle Paul in the twelfth chapter of his second letter to the Corinthian church. He was telling them about how he has been kept from becoming a conceited fool by having some kind of a handicap so that he is always reminded of his limitation or perhaps even some weakness. He pleaded with God to remove this weakness from him three times but his prayer was not answered. Instead, he received this powerful statement: "But he [God] said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'" (2 Cor 12:9).
Let's think about it for a moment. How much can a man really accomplish if he thinks always of what he can actually do? A good farmer will always farm and maybe produce much but still from a farming effort. He may not try fishing at all. A very good teacher will always teach and produce good students but always only in the academe. He won't venture into show business if he doesn't have the talent or the looks required. Can we expect a good basketball player to be good in tennis if he only thinks along the line of his expertise? The likely thing is that he won't even try because tennis is not his strength. So how can a weakness become something that one can consider a strength? Only in what Apostle Paul had done - to offer that weakness to the Lord so that instead of his weakness, it's God's strength that begins to work.
Someone said this and I think we all can agree: "The ceiling our our abilities is the floor of God's power." In other words, when we operate on our own abilities, depending on how much we are capable of from the start, we will get somewhere, somehow. But then there's a thing called achievement plateau, a place where however hard we try, we just can't get anymore farther than where we are. It's like a dead-end where we have in front of us a wall so thick we can't get through even with a sledge hammer and a wall so high we can't scale it no matter what. It's a place where we've run out of means and options that we can do no more. That's a place of weakness too because that's where we begin to feel that all that we have and can is just not enough.
Then something happens. Instead of looking down and weeping, we look up and pray. And just like Paul, God's power starts to kick in and we witness how we can smash through the wall or fly over that obstacle. We begin to operate beyond the natural and tap on the supernatural. Whatever that weakness that Paul is talking about, we won't know. What we do know is that he accomplished for Christianity more than anyone ever had. He knew it too and he also knew why when he said: "I can do anything through Christ who gives me strength" (Phil 4:13). His weakness was the opening for God to show His strength. Indeed, God's grace is made perfect in our weakness.
But there's a condition. We can only achieve greater things beyond our own capacity if we have surrendered to the power of the Lord. The supernatural does not start unless we have reached the end of the natural. The beginning of God's abilities is only when we have reached the ceiling of our own. The question now is, are you there yet? Or are you still operating on your own steam? If what's in front of you now is a thick and high wall, you you can climb it but only with the grace of God and in His own strength made perfect in your weakness. King David says, "By your help I have made a way through the wall which was shutting me in; by the help of my God I have gone over a wall" - (Psa 18:29 BBE).
