With Us in the Ashes

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 12:10 (ESV)

This scripture is a challenging one for me. To say I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities would be a stretch. To be honest, these are all things that I would like to avoid at all costs. Looking back over the years of my life, I can see a pattern of that. Fear of discomfort, confrontation, conflict, weakness, and even loneliness are all things I have run from. Being content through this long season of a worldwide pandemic is not something I have willingly embraced. But Paul is telling us in this verse that he has become content with hardships and painful circumstances because he has found a depth and richness in them that has produced strength.

To be perfectly honest, I’d love to have God give me strength with no hardships or trials, strength without having to face my fears or deal with conflict, but that hasn’t been my experience in life, and I’m guessing it hasn’t been yours. Paul is validating a truth that I know in my heart—God uses inevitable hardships, weaknesses and trials to reveal His power and presence in my life. When I have been at my very lowest, He has revealed Himself in ways I never imagined. It is in those dark nights of the soul—where all hope seems to slip away like a vapour—that God has knelt with me in the ashes.

In moments like that, the intimacy with God is almost indescribable. He has met me at my worst, in my weakest moments, and shown me that He is enough. If I never had another prayer answered for the rest of my life—He is enough. His strength is enough; His power is enough; His very presence and Spirit within me is enough. There is no mountaintop high that has ever produced that kind of assurance in my life. Don’t get me wrong; I love the mountaintops; I could live on the mountaintops quite happily, but I will never know my Saviour’s full strength and power if that is what I am living and striving for. I will never understand His love for me and my ultimate need for complete dependency on Him. Living on the mountaintop may actually become so comfortable that I risk losing my need for God.

It is in the ashes of life when hope seems lost that He has become my strength. In my weakness, I am transformed and refined to be more like Him. In my weakest moments, the longing for Heaven becomes a little more real, and I detach a little more from the comforts of this world. In this place of surrender, I find my Saviour stepping in to exchange my weakness for His strength. Thank you, Jesus!

 Prayer:

Lord – I bring before You today all of my shortcomings, my weaknesses, all of the circumstances and situations in my life that bring me to my knees. I declare that I am weak, but You are strong. So today, I will choose to embrace these weaknesses and hardships and exchange them for Your strength. I ask You humbly to help me be content with my life and allow You to produce good fruit in and through me as I walk through hardships and calamities. Thank you for meeting me in this place of need and giving me what I don’t deserve. Amen!