Five and a Half Questions Everyone Must Answer预览

Question 2: What are your Weaknesses?

2 Corinthians 12:9

“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.”

Have you heard of Henry Rider Haggard? He was an English writer whose work entitled “She” sold over 83 million copies. Pretty impressive, no? Many authors write their novels over the span of a couple years, but the work that preceded “She”, a 320-page novel entitled “King Solomon’s Mines” was written in only about six weeks. In addition, King Solomon’s Mines was also a bestseller! That’s impressive. Why did he write it? His brother challenged him to it, claiming Henry could never write a book as well as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883).

With five shillings on the line, Henry set off and overcame his brothers challenge with a victorious grin, and said, ‘I told you so.’ And he then followed up with She, which became one of the greatest selling books of all-time. Some guys are just naturally gifted writers.

Writing, however, has never been my forte. Where my natural strengths of speaking, encouragement, and numbers always seemed, well natural, writing never was. Could you see my spiritual dilemma when I felt impressed by God with a story I knew had to be written? There I was face to face with a weakness of mine – writing. The question of the hour was, now what?

My options were few, so I decided the story must be written, fears notwithstanding. As a result of making the key decision to follow God’s leading despite my feelings and to write that first book, a number of other books have since been penned. All to God’s Glory. How did I overcome this weakness? The answer is simple, I partnered with people who were naturally gifted with the strength of writing, as a result of the eight published books I’ve written, I have six different co-authors.

The purpose of identifying our weaknesses, true weaknesses, things that do not come naturally to us, is to potentially team up with someone who is a master in that field to produce maximum harvest. My belief is that when someone’s weakness is paired with someone else’s strength, there you find the makings of a great team. Paul proclaims how God’s strength is made perfect through his weaknesses. Don’t rob anyone of perfection, start by identifying your weaknesses and then seek out that individual(s) who provides the solution!

After all isn’t that what the body of Christ is supposed to do - work together for the glory of God? Truly, together we are better. But without a doubt the greatest partnership we could ever establish is with the one who actually created us and knows ALL our weaknesses! Now that is a partnership made in heaven!