Power Power in Weakness

Power 

Power in Weakness

God’s power and our pride are not a good mix

Paul tells us how he got more of God’s power to rest on him

By humbling giving God the credit and glory

Because we can only do all things through Christ who strengthens us

Power in Weakness

One of the greatest problems of power is self-exaltation.

  

The word “I” and “Me” are powerful words.

These words can kill the power of God in our lives.

We all want to be confident.

We want to be bigger than our problems.

Achievement gives us a desirable pleasure.

Having possessions that are

widely admired makes us feel good.

These things can give us a sense of power.

The result is arrogance and pride.

  

We see it in politics and business.

   

Jesus pointed this out in the

religious leaders of His time.

Paul pointed it out in the church at Corinth.

In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul had to defend his ministry

because while he was gone there were those in the

church who had raised themselves up to be “super apostles”

Verse 11

Paul was in an awkward position where he

had to defend himself and the work of Christ.

 Paul displayed his credentials

as a man who had seen Christ.

A man with “surpassingly great revelations”.

Paul also understood God had allowed

Satan to frustrate and torment him in order

to keep him from pride and arrogance.

From the beginning of sin in the garden, the curse of

painful toil and a decaying body has plagued mankind

not to make us suffer, but to keep us from becoming prideful.

Solomon says…

 “It is better to go to a house of morning then a house

of feasting and the living should take this to heart.”

    

You and I are more prone to look for God

in times of suffering than in the good times.

Paul tells us of his pleading with God to take away

his suffering and what the Lord’s response was…

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my

power is made perfect in weakness."

God’s power and our pride are not a good mix.

Paul also tells us how he got

more of God’s power to rest on him…

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my
weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me”

Paul listed 5 obstacles to his ability to achieve…  

“weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,

 in persecutions, in difficulties”

Paul did not see these things

as reasons for being a failure.

He saw them as opportunities for

God to show His Grace and Power.

Grace is favor.

 God’s favor is released in our humility.

It is in God’s ability to release grace

that gives us the power to overcome.

The lesson is to recognize we

can do all things through Christ.

Christ is to receive the glory because of His grace.

Pride…

Pride a feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's

own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely

associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.

Scripture Reading

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NIV

7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 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.