What Kills You Makes You StrongerSample

CLINGING STUBBORNLY TO STRENGTH

So King Amaziah’s courage through weakness paid off. God’s power took over his weakened army’s job to conquer the Edomites (2 Chronicles 25:13). But it was not a space Amaziah intended to live in forever.

After his great victory, Amaziah was on such a power trip that he started worshiping his success. “When King Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought with him idols taken from the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down in front of them, and offered sacrifices to them!” (2 Chronicles 25:14, NLT). Thank goodness that he was not going to live in that scary, weak space anymore!

God’s very logical answer to Amaziah’s foolishness is profound. “This made the Lord very angry, and he sent a prophet to ask, ‘Why do you turn to gods who could not even save their own people from you?’” (2 Chronicles 25:15, NLT). Wow! How often do we do the same thing?

When we are at our wit's end about finances or emotional struggles, we have nothing to offer God except our weakness. And then it is awesome when God’s power comes to the rescue. But before we know it, we start once again to love the same money that let us down in the first place. We go back to taking pride in the same “inner strength” that deserted us when we were at our lowest. We forget that we are only strong when we are weak (2 Corinthians 12:10, NLT).

Do you still remember a time of weakness when God’s power came to you your rescue? How do you use successful outcomes from when you surrendered your weakness to Him?

Let us cultivate a lifestyle of recognizing our weaknesses every day. Let us not take pride in successes that have no power to save. “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.. What? Do we dare rouse the Lord’s jealousy? Do you think we are stronger than he is?” (1 Corinthians 10:12;22, NLT)