This morning, I’m remembering an old song by Steven Curtis Chapman called “His Strength Is Perfect”. It says, “His strength is perfect when our strength is gone. He’ll carry us when we can’t carry on.” Those lyrics still speak to me nearly 30 years later. All my life, when I have found myself on the floor crying out, “God, I can’t do it any more,” I’ve felt His peace and strength come over me. He had been waiting for me to quit trying to do the impossible without Him. He knows I’m a strong willed, stubborn person who has to get to that point sometimes before I remember the truth that His strength is made perfect in my weakness.
In II Kings 4, there was a widow who owed the debts her husband had created. She had done everything in her power to pay them off. She had sold everything she owned to pay it and it hadn’t been enough. The creditors were coming to take her kids as slaves in order to pay the debt. When she was out if her options, she went to Elisha the prophet. He asked what she had at home and she said, “Nothing at all except a small jar of olive oil.” He told her to get as many jars from her neighbors as she could, to fill them with oil from the small jar and then to sell the oil. The miracle came when she was ready to admit her inability to do anything.
In Mark 5:25-34, we read of a woman who had an terrible bleeding problem. She suffered from it for 12 years and had spent everything she had trying to get better. The doctors couldn’t help her, she was out of money and out of options. Then she heard Jesus was in town. She knew that He could do what she and the doctors couldn’t. She thought, “If I just touch the hem of His garment, I will get well.” She had come to the point where she realized that her own strength, her own ideas and her money couldn’t heal her, only Jesus could. She crawled through a crowd on her hands and knees to draw power from the One whose strength is perfect and she was healed.
In our own lives we spend a lot of money, time and effort trying to accomplish God’s will for our lives. We think that God has somehow chosen us to do what He’s called us to do because of our gifts or talents. God doesn’t need your abilities to accomplish His will. He needs your willingness to rely on Him. If you could do it in your own strength, it wouldn’t be a miracle. If you could make it happen, He wouldn’t get glory. That’s why the things He calls us to are greater than ourselves and our ability.
Don’t grow tired trying to manufacture the miracle. Don’t grow weary trying to perform the impossible. Your greatest strength is your weakness. In II Corinthians 12:9, God spoke to Paul and said, “My power is greatest when you are weak.” The Amplified version says His power is most effective in your weakness. God doesn’t need you to be strong. He needs you to be humble enough to admit you can’t do it on your own. When you come to that place, you open the door for miracles.
To listen to “His Strength Is Perfect,” click here.
Devotions by Chris Hendrix 