Weakness is not a Waste
The pain of the Christian life is powerful in the plan of Christ.
The pain of the Christian life is powerful in the plan of Christ.
The weakness of a Christian is not wasted. God is working when we feel we are wasting away.
Christian self-development is a common form of diet-prosperity-gospel in our culture. Jesus will help you accomplish your goals, handle your flaws, and save you from Hell! Jesus Christ is leveraged to make your life better and help you grow.
This false gospel strategically forgets how and when Jesus makes our life better and helps us grow.
Jesus will make your life better when He makes all things new! He gives joy to Christians now. The Spirit gives strength today to put sin to death and to live a life for God. Life gets better in many ways.
But it also can get much worse. This life is full of suffering. Christians should expect to add suffering for Christ to their plans. Suffering for Christ is part of how Christ helps you grow.
We live in an odd era where many professing Christians could navigate a quasi-Christian culture with little friction. Obedience to Christ is compartmentalized in private parts of life. The choice to publicly testify for Jesus at cost of work or friendship or life sounds like a fairy tale to American Christians today.
The Scripture tells a different story. Millions of Christians around the world right now experience something different as well. It appears the moment of discount discipleship is sunsetting in America as well.
When pressure comes or slander or persecution, we need to remember that our weakness is a feature, not a bug.
Joining in the death of Jesus in our suffering shines light on the resurrection life of Jesus in us. We know that Jesus Christ suffered before glory, and we are willing to follow Him on that path.
We follow a crucified King. We should expect the pain He predicted as we await the glory of His promises. In our suffering we can show His resurrection life to a world that desperately needs it!
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
2 Corinthians 4:7–12