The Gospel and Our Weakness

What does the gospel have to do with our weakness? Is the gospel really sufficient in our weakness and struggles?

For some reason I have had an unusual amount of anger and frustration lately- particularly towards my children. It just kills me every time I snap at them or handle situations the complete opposite of how I would like to.

Respond don’t react. Respond don’t react. I keep hearing myself say this but struggle so deeply to live it.

How did this sin creep in so sneakily and take over me? I’ve never thought of myself as someone who is quick to anger. Somewhere along the way I have allowed the lie that I deserve ease to creep in. That I deserve people (namely my children) to make my life easy and always listen. To obey and always be kind to others, etc. I have become consumed with a “me” attitude, thinking I am deserving of these things, and in turn, I become frustrated when things don’t go my way.

Then, I am left with an unmatchable grief over my sin- why can’t I just get these sin issues dealt with?

Related: The Gospel When You Feel Like You’re Failing

As I was getting ready this morning, a thought struck me. Every morning as I spend time in the shower, I pray and ask God to give me the strength, patience, and love that I need for the day ahead- specifically with my children. I plead with God for this and then often as I go about my day, I try to love, I try to focus on Jesus, I try to be with Him throughout the day. Notice, the language I’m using- “I try“- the focus shifts from my recognition that I am completely dependent upon God for all of these things, to me trying my hardest to try to make them happen.

Later, as I spent my time soaking in the Word, I was led to pray diligently about this for today. As I prayed, God brought to mind 2 Corinthians 12:9,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

I have tried and tried to respond graciously and lovingly lately but what I need is to lean into the only One who can change my sinful heart. And the next verse just blows my mind:

“Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9b-10

Without Christ, I deserve NOTHING, but in spite of this I gain EVERYTHING because of Christ. He wants to look great and be glorified as He changes me and works in my weakness to produce Christ-likeness. He is more than able and more than willing to work in and through me in my weakness.

These verses reminded me of some other incredible verses about how the gospel applies to our weakness. Romans 5:6-11 says:

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Our weakness draws us directly to the gospel and our need for God’s grace every moment of every day.

Our weakness draws us to the truths of the gospel:

We have been created in God’s image, but have chosen to go our own way and try to depend on our own strength. Because of this, we have sinned as we choose to depend upon the things God has made instead of finding all strength and satisfaction in Him alone. Our sin has separated us from a holy and perfect God and there is literally nothing we can do to restore our relationship with Him, no matter how hard we try.

But God…

Looking back at Romans 5, you see that we were weak sinners in need of a savior, “BUT GOD shows His love for us in that while we were still weak, Christ died for us.” Wow. It is in this exact place of weakness that God enters in and His all-sufficient love and grace restores us to relationship to Him through Christ’s death on the cross. This is astounding news!

And it is astounding news for both today as we continue to struggle in our weakness, and also for all eternity as we look to our future hope where God restores all things to Himself and there is no more sin, sadness, or pain. What a great hope we have in Christ!

So, as we struggle with our weakness, this is a beautiful place to be. It is in this place of weakness that we recognize our need for Christ. As we depend on Him and the work of His Spirit within us, He shines brightly through us as the One who is powerful and mighty over all sin and weakness. This doesn’t mean it is easy to fight against our sin, but in our weakness, HE makes us strong.

God is graciously taking us by the hand and walking through our weaknesses with us.

As He works in and through us, He changes us and finds a home within us.

As we walk through life with Him, our dependency on Him is obvious and He gets the glory for changing us.

He alone can take our weakness and make it a strength as we depend on Him and show His sufficiency to the world around us.

So, while I finished getting ready this morning, I rested in knowing that it is not on my strength alone that I can be with Jesus and be changed by Jesus throughout the day, it is through His power working within me.

And as I pondered that thought, I saw God at work. Lets face it, this morning was hectic- we were definitely running late and there was potential for everyone to be mad at each other by the time we walked out the door. It was in my pondering with the Lord that He put this before me, allowed me to take a deep breath, and gave me the strength to rest in Him in the midst of a chaotic morning. God gave me victory over my ‘crazy mom’ state that happens in the midst of hurry and allowed me to dependently walk with Him, love others, and patiently tread through the morning. To HIM be the glory for in my weakness, He made me strong and showed Himself through me!

See more on applying the gospel to your everyday life here.