God's Power Is Manifested In Weakness!

Poor Moses! He was on the spot. God was calling him to do something he didn’t really feel qualified to do. I can see him squirming as he said, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue” (Exodus 4:10 NIV). In essence, “I’m not the man you want.”

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, God could have given Moses an eloquent tongue and answered Moses’ excuse, but He didn’t! Instead, God sent Moses back to Egypt with his weaknesses. The apostle Paul felt there was a limitation in his life, and asked God to remove it (2 Corinthians 12:8 NIV). As strange as it might seem, God told the Apostle Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV).

Upon hearing this, the apostle responded: “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” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV).

It may be that I share something with Moses. A clear Christian duty is set before me, but I feel that if God really expects me to do it, He would grant me special abilities — but He doesn’t. I am still me. God does not need to overcome my inadequacies before He can use me.

The truth is, God’s power is manifested in weakness!

To be full of self-confidence is to be empty of the power of God. To quote the apostle Paul again: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV). —John Gipson

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets