My weakness, Your strength

Sometimes strength is overrated, god never sees things like how we do. I've been thinking about this for a really long time. Having to deal with so many of my own weaknesses, struggling so much, playing the tug-of-war with my emotions and thoughts. Weakness is really something that people avoid talking about or addressing. It'd be best if it was swept under the rug, but the fact is... God is looking for your weaknesses. He is waiting for me to come before him- not to list my strengths, but to agree and be honest about my limitations and weaknesses. Because the end of ourselves is the start of Him working in us.

Derek puts it nicely..... (thanks man, really love your writing)

"we make a God out of strength... out of our strength... we hate weakness - in us and in our loved ones... we have to "fix" it... DISCLAIMER: i'm not saying that weakness is an excuse for sin (i.e. anxiety) - neither am i equating sin with weakness...

in some weird way, i've come to equate my strength with "being right with God"... i define others by their strengths - at least, their obvious strengths... while i don't think that's wrong, God didn't always do it that way...

this is what i've been thinking about... in the last scene of chronicles of narnia, the children are given names by aslan... they're not named based on their strengths... similarly, cephas had his name changed to peter when he was anything but strong... jacob - israel, abram-abraham... i think that's the way that God's work...

He works, not us... nothing is wrong with practicing and putting ourselves out there... in fact, not doing so is wrong... but our obsession with OUR strength reveals our selfishness and self-centeredness... it is God who works, and what He sees as strength is often so different as what we are obsessed with... He delights in using broken vessels... it's a lesson that is both painful and encouraging...

our acceptance does not depend on our strength... the sooner we realize that, the sooner we realize our strength... Paul understood it ("my strength is made perfect in weakness"), but it took a lot for him to reach that point... it's not a one off thing that we can fit in our theology some where... first and foremost, God wants us to seek Him before ourselves, our strengths, etc.

Ok, I rambling at this point... main point is, our culture worships strength... as Christians, we're not supposed to shy away and cower... but we (I) have to realize that our strength does not come from ourselves and does not define us... we are already defined, already named, already accepted...

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." "

Itallics Derek Dieu's