Why God won’t work in anything but weakness

The Presence of God is an aberration except when we have nothing left of ourselves to give and have no desire to take anything that isn’t from Him. 

God won’t work in anything that isn’t weak. Of course, there will be Christians scrambling all over the place in their minds; we don’t like to be weak. We want the victory of Christ. What has victory to do with weakness — what has weakness to do with victory?

Why is it that God won’t work in anything that is not weak? Because God said Himself, the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)

But we run to all sorts of idols of our own fashioning. We glory in the strengths our lives have put together. We find safety in our positions, our salaries, our homes, our words, our computers, our possessions, our wisdom. In these and more we find our identity. But we also find in these vanity.

God doesn’t work when our lives are Jesus-plus-something-else. God only works through sheer, complete, utter dependence. This is why, as seasoned Christians, we have forgotten the last time God moved in our midst. Perhaps we cannot remember what it was like to fully rely on God.

This is where God truly matters — where nothing but God is relevant: maybe you’re feeling undone by life. You could have had the day from hell. Loss may have swooped down and stolen your world. Grief could be your byword. Charred shards of a treasured life could lay there on weather-beaten ground. 

Is there something that renders you nothing but weak? Do not despair! You are fundamentally in Position A to receive the blessed Presence. God favours not the strong, but the weak.

Photo by Jakub Kriz on Unsplash