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Strength that Endures
“… I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” — II Corinthians 12:9
Whatever the thorn in Paul’s flesh was, we have all gained from it. That is because, whether we admit it or not, we are all rather thorny people. We could spend our days and nights picking at the thorns and begging for their removal, or we could move forward in grace.
We harbor delusions of self-sufficiency and adequacy because we simply do not understand the real source of real strength. Pride, ego, and self-centeredness blind us to our needy state. We deny the thorns if they don’t go away on their own and cover them with layers of hypocrisy.
Get real!
Worship is not an illusion. Nor is a time of glorified denial as we display the selves we wish to project to our brothers and sisters. We don’t come to church to parade our perfection. Worship is about getting real with God and one another so that God can become real to us.
In worship, we acknowledge real strength — that it is God’s and not ours. We are commanded to be strong in the Lord — not in the flesh, not in our strength, not in our own will power. As we come, we bow before the Lord — and that is with humility and recognition of our own weakness. It is Christ’s power and not our own, we need to overcome that over which we are powerless. When we are weak, then we are strong because we rely upon the God of strength. When we come to that realization, we can truly worship.
