December 28, 2018

365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 28: Our Strength


Our Strength

"O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love." (Psalm 59:17 NLT)

The strength of God is a repeated refrain in the song of Scripture. It inspires confidence and gives spiritual feet firm ground to stand on.


But I've struggled a little with one particular reference to it in 2 Corinthians 12:6 as I learned it in the King James Version (shared here in the New King James Version): "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

"My strength is made perfect in weakness..." Since perfect means "complete" or "lacking nothing," I started to wonder if this implies that God's strength is somehow dependent on our weakness, as if His strength is in some way incomplete on its own. But I think a better interpretation is this: God has no need of strength for Himself since He already IS strength embodied, so His (perfect) strength seeks a target. Our weakness is that target. When God's strength finds weakness (an easy search in my case), it fulfills its purpose. And thus strengthened, we can fulfill our purpose, too.

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I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to tell me what you really think. Years ago, I explained to my then-two-year-old that my appointment with a counselor was "sort of like going to a doctor who will help me be a better mommy." Without blinking, she replied, "You'd better go every day." All of which is just to say I've spent some time in the school of brutal honesty!