When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong

 

Every so often, I think back to my days as an intern at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. For those of you not from the area, JPS is the county hospital for Fort Worth and surrounding communities. I was doing my Emergency Medicine rotation. Due to a quirk in the schedule, there was a time each week when I was the only doctor in the ER. That’s right – Medicine, Surgery, Ortho, GYN, Trauma – just me. I felt like a pinball. One day, I was stat paged overhead to the trauma area, where I found a patient in the midst of a medical crisis. We started to work and I felt okay until somebody told me that the patient was a close relative of a VIP. I suddenly felt very inadequate. I kept working, but I asked the staff to get the head doctor for the ER down here STAT. Fortunately, everything turned out well, I kept my job, and went on to finish the rotation and the year.

 We will never be at peace as long as we feel inadequate, if we are trusting in our own abilities. We will always be worrying about our shortcomings and about how things will turn out if we can’t somehow be better or do more. The answer is to place our trust in God, who never fails. The apostle Paul had a “thorn in the flesh” that was hindering him. He asked God three times to remove it, only to be told, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul’s response was, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me…..For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

 

Paul later wrote to the Philippians, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). Regardless of what situation we find ourselves in, once we realize that we can’t do it on our own nor are we called to do so, we can then let the power of God work in and through us. We have to let go of whatever the problem might be so that God may take hold of it (and us) and begin to work in that situation. God has told His people, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). We can trust Him at His word.

 

If you are feeling inadequate for the task today, turn to God in prayer and let Him be the help and the strength that you need for today and the days ahead.

 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6)