The human body is weak and frail.  It doesn’t matter how many push-ups or sit-ups you can do, that fact doesn’t change.  You can have a six-pack abdomen with buns of steel and still be frail.  Our frailty comes from our inability to handle life and all it throws at us.   We call this stress.  Stress gets blamed for a lot in our lives, but it is true that it affects our bodies.  Even when I think I’ve handled life well, my headache tells me that my body is responding to life.  It’s so disheartening to be so weak.  It feels so out of control.  What can we do with this weak body in which we live daily?

We need to yield ourselves to God and His plan for us.  It’s so unnerving to yield our way, our desires, our plans, our thoughts, and our bodies to God.  Can we really trust Him to know what’s best for us?  After all, don’t I know me better than God knows me?  That’s the way we tend to operate in this life.  Hence the reason in thinking that being strong in all things is the answer.  We want to be in control but there is so much that is out of our control.  This causes us greater concern because if we can’t control something then we are weak.  Who wants to be weak?  Paul said he was content in his weakness.  That’s worth trying to figure out because if Paul was content in weakness, then we should be able to be content too.

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  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.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”                     2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Paul said a lot in these three verses that can help us to accept our weakness and to relish in God’s strength.

1. God allows trials.  The trials we face are tailor made for us in order to make us more like Jesus.  Paul’s trial kept him from being conceited.  He could have been a braggart about the direct messages he received from God, which would have displayed human pride.  But God loved him too much to allow that to happen so He sent the thorn in his flesh to humble him.  Trials can humble us and drive us to God.
2. God gives grace in the midst of the trial. God’s grace is experienced in our lives at the point of salvation but doesn’t stop there.  He is so gracious to us that he continues to give us all we need on a daily, moment to moment basis.  He knows we need grace.  Even when things don’t change, God’s grace is sufficient.  Don’t try to be so strong that you crowd out God’s grace!  We can seek to forge ahead on our own, thinking we can control the trial or handle the trial ourselves without help.  That thinking will crowd out the grace God is trying to bestow on us to handle the trial.  Admission of needing help is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of reality.  We need Him!
3. God displays His power when we are weak. When we actually admit we are weak then God can help.  God’s help is not necessarily a rescue from the trial.  It goes beyond rescue.  God’s help is grace upon grace to sustain us and help us to endure.  His help is the presence of His faithfulness and steadfast love.  His help is His Word, so full of promises and the knowledge of our God who is good all the time.  When we yield to His help in our weakness we experience His strength.
4. God gives us reason to be weak in our sufferings. We are weak for the sake of Christ.  As followers of Christ, we are to reflect our Savior, Jesus.  When we are weak and relying on the strength of God then Christ is seen in us.  It is for His sake that we will suffer many things.  Our trials and suffering are about Him being seen in us.  Our reason to be weak is Christ.  Doesn’t this give us reason for contentment?

The next time you face a trial and your frail body reacts, remember you are weak and you have a need.  You need strength but not your own.  You need God’s strength which means contentment in weakness; trusting Him with the outcome.  We want to be able to say with Paul, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10b