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“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV).
Have you ever had one of those weeks where you want to throw in the towel, but it’s only Tuesday? Yeah, me too. It doesn’t happen all the time, but last week was that week for me. By 8 pm Tuesday, I was exhausted. As I stood in the shower, attempting to process, my heart ached. Anxious thoughts flooded my lungs, and despair wrapped around my mind. The more the water droplets fell, the worse I felt. “I can’t keep going,” I found myself telling the Lord.
As I made my way out of the shower and onto the floor of my closet, Oso, my goldendoodle, wagged his tail. I told him I was going to shower and then go cry on the floor. So, here he was, my emotional support pup, to sit by my side. It was as if he knew I didn’t feel strong enough and needed someone, anyone’s presence, physically by my side. While he’s just a dog, I believe the Lord sent him to me in that moment. To remind me that I wasn’t alone, but also that I don’t always need to be strong.
For years, I’ve been the friend who asks how others are doing. I try to be strong and put up a front, not one of insincerity, but one that can handle their problems if they’re suffering. But even the strongest of us need someone to support us, too. And this is why Christ asks us to rely on His strength, and not our own.
2 Corinthians 12 is a passage I’ve studied for decades now. I love the story of Paul’s thorn in the flesh because I can identify with it. While I wish that he and I alike wouldn’t have to suffer, it comforts me to know that someone has been where I am. It also reminds me that God doesn’t ask us to be strong, but He does ask us to come to Him in our struggles.
If you’re feeling weak, dejected, and beaten up by the week before it even begins, please know that weakness is not a failure, but rather space for Christ’s power to shine through. That might sound cliché to you, but it’s Gospel truth. When we don’t and aren’t strong enough, God works through our weaknesses. This is also why Romans 8:28 tells us that God works all things for our good and His glory. We will experience hardships, persecutions, mockery, deception, and pain, but He is with us through it all. And when we’re on that last leg, He gives us His supernatural strength and power to see us through