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 12:9–10
This Sunday, we looked at one of David’s penitential laments; the Psalms where David admits his sin to God and asks for God to save him. He ends the Psalm by saying:
And in your steadfast love you will cut off my enemies,
and you will destroy all the adversaries of my soul,
for I am your servant.
This line is worth reflecting on for a few reasons:
The first is: when David refers to God cutting off enemies and destroying the adversaries of his soul, he is talking about everything that leads him into sin. As he has made clear in the rest of the Psalm, part of this struggle is against himself. He is declaring that God will come in a turn his life upside-down; and he is praising God for it. He is inviting God to do whatever needs to be done to reveal his weakness and sin.
I was reminded of this yesterday as I read from the book The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb. This book is aimed at tearing down the false ideals of success and power that have infiltrated the church and every one of us. In this book, the authors interview some wise, older Christians who have been faithful to God over their lifetimes. One of these, Jean Vanier, is a man who started a community for the disabled which has grown into an international movement. In speaking with him, he made it clear that part of our sinful nature is to reject anything that seems to expose our weakness:
The immediate reaction is to try to destroy the monsters, or to hide them away, pretending that they don’t exist. Or we try to flee from community life and relationship with others, assuming that the monsters are theirs, not ours: they are guilty, not us…We think that you have to be strong, you have to win, you have to be the best. So we believe that we should all be winners, but we are not all winners. So our experience of being loved and accepted in community allows us to accept ourselves as we are. We are broken, but we are loved.
Whether it is David going to God or our relationships in community, there is a beauty to confronting our sinful brokenness in the light of the gospel. While we fear being exposed, stepping into the light is the only way to remove the things in our lives THAT ARE DESTROYING US. God isn’t interested in robbing you of he things that make you unique or interesting, He created those. He is aware that you and I hold on to sin that is destructive to our relationship with Him and others. He lovingly commits Himself (in His steadfast love) to the work of sanctifying us.
The second thing that is worth reflecting on here is the last line: for I am your servant. I mentioned Sunday that this is quite a shocking statement for a king to make. For us, in an age of individualism, it is just as hard; to see the benefit of having our sin exposed requires us to recognize that we need to be led. Serving God is not a position of oppression, it is a place of salvation. Only when we admit our need for a savior can we be saved. This salvation is not to take and live in independence; we are saved into a relationship with God. It is in coming face to face with our absolute limitations that we can receive the limitless gift of grace. As Paul quotes God above:
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
While we may know these words, and even repeat them to others, the power of them is not felt until you recognize the true nature of your sin. When you come face to face with the fact that you are not who you want to pretend you are, it is easy to want to retreat, to hide the monsters. God invites us to walk in the light; revealing clearly to everyone that we are not perfect, but we are loved. His love is sufficient!