At the Point of Weakness
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore 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 Cor. 12:9, 10b).
I looked around the room at the Bible study I was teaching—eight faces, young and old, men and women, all Iranians from Muslim backgrounds, now eager to study the Bible. What an opportunity, with the very people I felt God called me to serve.
And yet … I was frustrated. I had been studying their language for over seven years. Shouldn't I be able to teach without a translator by now? Over the years I have spent countless hours with them. Shouldn’t I better understand their culture by now? Yet often things went right over my head. I was frustrated—so close to them and at the same time so far away.
In the midst of this, God began to meet me using a recurring motif in 2 Corinthians. What I had missed in my frustration was God’s way—He demonstrates His power not at the point of our strength, but at the point of our weakness (12:9–10). His power to change these people does not lie in my ability to speak their language or understand their culture but through my weakness. I have begun to realize that no matter how much of their language I learn or insight into their culture I acquire, I will always minister from a place of weakness. This is not a bad thing. More and more this is becoming the very basis of my hope and confidence—that God’s power will work in and through me, to bring about change in others.
Life-giving ministry comes through weakness and death. God's way is to use “jars of clay” to show His “all-surpassing power” (2 Cor. 4:7). Isn't that what I want? Isn't that ultimately why I am here as a missionary—to see God glorified in saving a people for Himself and by using weak “jars of clay” to do so? O God, teach me your ways.
*Chuck (last name withheld) serves in Muslim ministry with MTW. This was originally published in The Journey devotional.
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SEE MOREGive thanks to God for the hundreds of thousands of Iranians who have come to faith over the last two decades. Pray for God to protect believers and draw more to Himself.
Pray for those in Turkey continuing to rebuild from last year's earthquake, and for continuation of the spiritual growth seen as a result.
Give thanks for all the God is doing in the Muslim World to draw people to Christ. Pray that He would raise up more laborers for this harvest field.
Pray today for the unreached living in Central Asia, as well as for the local believers and missionaries hoping to reach them. Pray for relationships and conversations of faith.
Pray for the "Timothys" in Muslim-majority West Africa who are growing in their Christian faith and teaching others.
Pray for a small group Bible study of Genesis in which Muslim men are encountering their need for Christ.
Pray for our single missionaries serving internationally in the midst of their unique struggles.
Pray for a small group men's study in the Middle East as men seek to learn truth Scripture while wrestling with the realities of what ISIS has taken from them.
Pray for South Asian communities in New York City who have been hard hit by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, and for God to use missionaries serving among them.
Pray today for MTW's ministry to refugees in a large American city.
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