Strength in Weakness

By Charles Spurgeon

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9)

A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing God’s work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness. When God’s warrior marches forth to battle, strong in his own might, when he boasts, “I know that I shall conquer, my own right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory!” —defeat is not far distant.

IN YOUR OWN STRENGTH

God will not go out with that man who marches in his own strength. He who bets on victory has bet wrongly, for it is, “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” Those who go out to fight, boasting of their prowess, will return with their merry banners trailing in the dust, and their armor stained with disgrace.

IN GOD’S STRENGTH

Those who serve God must serve him in his own way and in his strength—or he will never accept their service. That which man does, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth he casts away; he will only reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love.

EMPTY BEFORE FILLED

God will empty out all that you have before he will put his own strength into you. He will first clean out your granaries before he will fill them with the finest of the wheat. The river of God is full of water, but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in his battles but the strength which he himself imparts.

Are you mourning over your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give you victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.