In my weakness, His strength is made Perfect.

Hi dearly beloved,

Have we ever at times felt that in our circumstances we needed to do something more about it? But as we keep trying and trying, it seems to make us more powerless. Impotent to some extent. Even when we start thinking about "how" to rest in that situation can give us strive.

Paul said it so beautifully here:

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.

Are we willing to give up and be willing to be weak to our own abilities and allow the Lord's strength to be perfected in us? Are we willing to say, "Lord i am weak in this circumstance, i look to Your Perfect Strength to conquer this situation."

Let's bring ourselves back to Moses' first encounter with GOD. Now we know that Moses was a Prince of Egypt. He pretty much gave all that up by running away into the desert. He had all the power and influence as part of the Egyptian royal family. But after he ran away, our Moses became a shepherd. A great picture for us all as believers. A shepherd is a picture of our Lord Jesus. But there was one thing that happened before GOD commissioned Moses to deliver the people of Israel. There was one thing before Moses was empowered by GOD to do His bidding and the power of God at his hands. This was what God said,

Exodus 4 : 2-3

2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

God asked Moses to now throw down the only thing that symbolized Moses' abilities and strengths. His shepherd's rod/staff. A symbol of authority a shepherd had over his flock. Without his rod, Moses is no more. No more Prince of Egypt, not even a shepherd. Worse case scenario, the rod turned into a poisonous serpent! Of course Moses freaked. Therefore he fled, fearing he might be bitten by the serpent.

Then GOD spoke again,

Exodus 4 : 4

4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

Moses obeyed GOD and picked up the serpent by its tail. Now, is this the wisest move? Not necessarily, by holding a snake by the tail, the chances of the snake turning around and biting you is very high. Then again, it goes to show that Moses had to rely on GOD to prevent the serpent from biting him.

From this account, we can clearly see that GOD's intention was to ask Moses not to rely on his own abilities and strengths but to rely upon HIM. Best part was, Moses' obedience to GOD. GOD said, throw your strengths and abilities down, Moses just did it. We can see from this occasion that Moses did not question GOD. Unlike other occasions where Moses is seen questioning GOD and even complaining. But this instance, Moses did not. His humble obedience is what's required.

So, what we can learn here is that, give up our abilities, give up "trying" to do something when you know that this is ultimately His work, His decision. After doing so, then the Lord will confer back your abilities to you. That's when GOD will turn the serpent back into the rod. That's when we know our abilities and strengths come from Him and there is nothing we can boast ourselves of.

And as we take back the rod, the rod becomes His rod.

Exodus 4 : 20

20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

Now, we can see the ordinary rod has become The Rod of God.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we look unto Him and cast down all our natural abilities at His feet and with this seeming act of weakness, we are actually imbuing ourselves with His Perfect Strength!

Hallelujah! Now we can boldly say, "Jesus i am so weak, so impotent but you're strong and my strength comes from you alone." Amen.

Be blessed by His abundant Grace and we receive, always.

Emmanuel