WE NEED THE LORD

WE NEED THE LORD

II Cor. 12:8-9 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, "My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness."  So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me.  NLT

      What are your weaknesses? Your weaknesses are an asset and not a liability. They are given to us to keep us close to God. The more we understand our need for the Lord's help, the stronger in faith we become. We learn to trust the Lord best when we are tried the best. In fact, I would call our weaknesses a badge of honor. They remind us of just how good, kind, and gracious the Lord is to us as He supplies for us what our weaknesses withhold from us. Our weaknesses are another person's strengths and vice versa. Together we make for a unified and strong team.

      I can't sing. There is no way in the world that I can stay on tune, if I could even get there. As a pastor of small churches, I have been expected over the years to lead congregational singing. I had to learn how to lead without being heard for the sake of others. However, my wife is a good singer and musician. She has been able to compensate for my lack of music. Together we make a team that the Lord has used for His glory.

      The Lord is a master at plugging us in where we belong in the body. He does not ask us to do what we can't do, but what we can do. The Lord never required of me to serve Him musically. As much as I would have liked to do it, He had other plans for me. He required of me to serve Him in the areas where I am gifted. His grace has proven to be more than sufficient for me. He has more than compensated for my lack of musical giftedness. It is more than okay for me to be weak and limited in what I cannot do.

       It is not a bad thing to recognize and understand our weaknesses. We must know who we are and where we are and are not gifted. We must learn to honor the Lord in the ways we use our gifts and in the ways we trust Him through our weaknesses. If we let Him, the Lord will work through our strengths to let us serve Him. He allows us to understand our weaknesses so that we can understand that our strengths come from Him and not us. What we are able to do is a gift from God. We praise Him both for what we can't do and what we can do. It is by and through His power at work within us that we are able to serve Him.

       Trying to do what we are not gifted to do is like trying to put a square peg into a round hole; it simply does not work.  In fact, we usually do far more harm than good when we try to do it.