Weakening the Power of the Gospel

The other week, I went in to get a haircut.  As usual, at the very end, the person cutting my hair asked me, “Would you like any product in your hair?”  Of course!  Nothing like adding a little style to my new buzz.  She begins putting this “molding” cream in my hair.  As a good salesperson would, she began describing the product to me.  She talked about how this product was great because it was easier to work with than other hair products.  Then she said something that stuck out in my mind, “Don’t apply this when your hair is wet, or it will weaken the product.”  It makes sense really.  Most of the time, if you add water to another substance it will dilute/weaken the power of the original product.  The same thing happens with bleach when you add water to it.  It loses some of its power.

Often, the way I view grace is that it is something to be earned.  As I was reading in 2 Corinthians 12, God showed me how skewed my view of grace really is.  There are times in my life when temptation is overwhelmingly powerful.  It can often have a very big foothold in my life.   Most people have some temptation, they keep coming back to.  No matter how much you hate that temptation, it always finds its way back to you.  In my life, I would pray, “God, please, take this from me.  I am so tired of fighting this.  I hate it.”  I would try so hard to “pray it away”. 

In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about this same idea.  Whether it was temptation or some other struggle, I’m not sure.  But what is clear is that Paul is under some kind of duress.  Starting in verse 7b he says, “…Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.” 

Paul seems to be completely overwhelmed by whatever this struggle is.  What really stuck out to me though is Paul’s reasoning for why he is struggling with it.  He says “…in order to keep me from becoming conceited”.  In other words, in order to keep me from becoming too proud.  This reminds me of the Old Testament, when God is speaking to the Israelites.  In Judges 3, it says the LORD left “the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites” in the land “to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD’s commands, which he had given their ancestors through Moses.”

God wants us to follow him.  For those like me who have asked the question, “Why won’t God take this away”, this passage can help lead us to the truth.

Like the Israelites, we are prone to sin.  We often find ourselves turning from God or at the very least, like Paul, being tempted to turn from God.  Other times, like Job, we go through difficult times and don’t understand why we are. 

When we get to this point, 2 Corinthians 12 comes into play.  As we plead with God to remove what we are going through, he says to us (2 Corinthians 12:9), “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Paul goes on to say, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

When we try to make sense of things in our own minds, when we try to “earn” our grace, or when we try and show others how big God is by our own means, we dilute His story.  Like the hair product or the bleach, it isn’t the complete, natural product.  We have weakened it by adding our own “power” to it.

God uses struggles, temptations, difficulties, and persecution in our lives for two reasons as described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 12.

God uses our weakness to demonstrate his power.  He doesn’t need our help.  In fact, when we try and “help” using our own power, we demonstrate an imperfect power of God to others around us.  But when we depend on God’s grace in our times of weakness, His power is made real.

God also uses our weaknesses and struggles to humble us, and remind us of our desperate need for his grace.   There is literally NO WAY that we can earn our way back to Christ.  We have no power that will bring value to what God has to offer us.  Instead, God calls us to “act justly, love mercy, and walk HUMBLY with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Are you still trying to fight for grace?  Are you willing to be weak, so that Christ can be strong?  What are you going through right now, that you can “take delight in” so that in your weakness, you can be made strong by the Holy Spirit, through the power of Jesus Christ, by his death and resurrection?  We are free through Christ.  (Forgiven - Crowder)