I woke up
dizzy. I don’t know why. I went to the doctor and he gave me anti-dizziness
medication which made it worse. It lingered for weeks. My balance was off. I
was worn out and discouraged. The doctors
ordered a battery of tests in an effort to find the cause of my vertigo. After the first MRI, the nurse called me to
say I needed to have another more intensive MRI. When I asked her why, she said the doctors
think you might have an aneurysm. I thought there was a possibility that I'd be
dead soon. I even went to a lawyer to
draw up my will. Lying in that MRI
machine, with blaring noise like the sound of a thousand guns going off around
my head, I sensed the presence of God like never before.
Eventually,
I was diagnosed with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. What this means is that I get dizzy when I
move my head in certain ways, usually up or down. It is particularly bad when I lie flat, so I for
the last 18 years I have slept with my head propped up with pillows. I have undergone physical therapy which has
helped to make it manageable but I never know when it might flair up again. To me dizziness is awful because it is such a
helpless, out of control feeling. But I
see it as a reminder that ultimately, I am not in control of my life, God is. This persistent weakness prompts me to look
to God for my strength. Because of this “thorn
in the flesh”[1]
I recognize my need to depend on God.
For more
than 20 years, I was a part of a church whose mission was to help people become
“fully dependent followers of Jesus Christ.” Our pastor had taken our mission statement
from a well know mega-church whose goal was to create “fully devoted
followers of Jesus Christ.” Being
devoted to Christ is a wonderful ambition.
But the change from devoted to dependent was deliberate and
significant. Being a dependent follower
of Jesus Christ switches the focus off ourselves and onto God. It reminds me that I cannot live the
Christian life in my own strength. I
must rely on Jesus not just to save me from my past mistakes but to give me the
strength to follow Him each day.
According to Bible teacher Kay Arthur, there are three tenses to
salvation:
I have
been saved, I am being saved, I shall be saved.
The first is justification—you have been saved from sin’s
penalty. That’s the past tense—something
which happened in your past and because it did you’ll never be condemned. The second is sanctification—the present
tense of salvation. You are being saved from sin’s power moment by moment as
you live under His control and allow the indwelling Holy Spirit to lead you into
all righteousness…. The third is glorification. It is the future, you will be saved from sin’s
presence…[2]
Just as
Christ’s death on the cross made it possible for our sins to be forgiven, His
resurrection life gives believers the power to experience the benefits of
salvation on a daily basis: “While we were God’s enemies, He made us His
friends through the death of His Son. Surely, now that we are His friends, He will
save us through His Son’s life.” (Romans 5:10, NCV). Years ago my pastor’s wife and good friend,
Terrisa Coleman and I taught a women’s Bible Study which we entitled Your Life
in Christ. The outline of the class
was:
Christ
gave His life for you
So that
He could give His life to you
Christ is
the only one who ever lived the Christian life.
When I try to follow Him in my own strength, I fail miserably. So this
is why weakness is my strong suit. When
I recognize my inability to obey the commands of Christ, I lean on Jesus who
gives me strength. My senior year at Duke, a group of friends and I studied the
wonderful, life-changing book, The Saving Life of Christ by Major W. Ian
Thomas. This book details the necessity
and practicalities of allowing Christ to live in and through you. Even though the book is rather old now, I
think it is a classic—a must read for those longing to follow Christ. Major Thomas explains,
“Faithful
is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” The one who calls you to a life
of righteousness is the One who by your consent lives that life of
righteousness through you!... This is the divine genius that saves a man from
the futility of self-effort. It relieves the Christian of the burden of trying
to pull himself up by his own bootstraps!... If you will but trust Christ, not
only for the death He died in order to redeem, you but also for the life He
lives and waits to live through you, the very next step you take will be a step
taken in the very energy and power of God Himself…. You will become totally
dependent upon the life of Christ within you, and never before will you
have been so independent, so emancipated from the pressure of
your own circumstances, so released at last from that self-distrust
which has made you at one moment an arrogant, loud mouthed braggart, and next
moment the victim of your own self-pity—and, either way, always in bondage to
the fear of other men’s opinions….You will be restored to your true humanity—to
be the human vehicle of divine life.[4]
Nearly
twenty years later, I attended another transformative Bible study called Experiencing
God by Henry Blackaby. Through this
class I learned that Jesus also lived His earthly life by being totally
dependent on His Heavenly Father (See John 5:17-20). Blackaby said:
I would
outline Jesus’ approach to knowing and doing God’s will like this:
Jesus Example
·
The Father has been working right up until now.
·
Now God has me working.
·
I do nothing on my own initiative.
·
I watch to see what the Father is doing.
·
I do what I see the Father is already doing.
·
You see, the Father loves me.
·
He shows Me everything that He, Himself, is doing.[5]
Unlike
me, Jesus could have lived a perfect life in His own strength. After all, He was God in the flesh. But He chose not to. When He became a man, He voluntarily set
aside His divine power and privilege:
Christ Himself was like God in everything. But He did not think that being equal with God was something to be used for His own benefit. But He gave up His place with God and made Him nothing. He was born as a man and became like a servant. And when He was living as a man, He humbled Himself and was fully obedient to God, even when that caused His death—death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8, NCV)
Even for
the Son of God weakness was His strong suit.
From a human point of view, what could be weaker than the suffering and
humiliation that Christ endured on our behalf.
But because of His reliance on His Father, we now are able to follow His
example and rely on His strength. The Apostle Paul said, “it is true that He
was weak when He was killed on the cross, but He lives now by God’s power. It
is true that we are weak in Christ, but for you we will be alive in Christ by
God’s power.” (2 Corinthians 13:4, NCV)
Learning the Lesson:
Read the
following passage that sums up the lesson that Weakness is Your Strong Suit:
So that I would not become too proud of the wonderful things that were shown to me, a painful physical problem was given to me. This problem was a messenger from Satan, sent to beat me and keep me from being too proud. I begged the Lord three times to take this problem away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, My power is made perfect in you.” So I am very happy to brag about my weaknesses. Then Christ’s power can live in me. For this reason, I am happy when I have weaknesses, insults, hard times, sufferings, and all kinds of troubles for Christ. Because when I am weak, then I am truly strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, NCV)
List
below any weaknesses, insults, hard
times, sufferings, and all kinds of troubles for Christ that, humanly
speaking, you wish were not a part of your life. Then write out a short prayer, thanking God
for these circumstances and that they give you an opportunity to depend on
God’s power in your life.
[1] See 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
[2] Arthur, K. (1991). Lord is it warfare? Teach me to stand. Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 246-247.
[3] This study was inspired by the teaching of Bob George who had been a great influence on my beloved pastors, Stan and Terrisa Coleman.
[4] Thomas, W. I. (1961). The saving life of Christ. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 15-16.
[5] Blackaby, H., & King, C. V. (1990). Experiencing God: Knowing and doing the will of God. Nashville, TN: Life Way Press, 14-15.
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