Knowing Your Weakness Can Make You Stronger
Even though it can be hard to admit, acknowledging a weakness can make you stronger. Everyone has weak spots, but there is a certain strength in KNOWING it.
Why?
Well, it’s important because knowing our weaknesses challenges us. We don’t grow if we aren’t challenged. If we don’t know our weakness and struggle against it then we simply aren’t growing. Knowing our weak spots and then being willing to allow God to grow and change us is a place where EVERYONE SHOULD BE.
But, it’s not.
Why Don't People Grow Spiritually?
There are lots of reasons people don’t grow. They are lazy, they don’t want to, they think they are fine where they are….but all of us NEED to grow and God is ALWAYS trying to teach us something. Let me say that again...God is ALWAYS trying to teach us something. Are you listening or not? If someone asks you the question “what has God been teaching you” and you don’t have an answer, that is a clear indication that you are not pursuing God...and not growing.
Why Should We Want to Grow?
Growth of any kind helps us overcome obstacles and fears, leading us to make better life choices, for ourselves and ultimately help others along on the journey. Growth is dynamic, unpredictable, and exciting. You never know what it will lead to.
Don’t you want to be getting wiser with age, better with age, smarter with age? I sure hope so! But the simple truth is that most people don’t. There are a few who recognize the opportunity we have to be better tomorrow than we were today, but that number is not large. In fact, I would bet that it’s decreasing daily with the way technology has infiltrated our lives and we are JUST SO DISTRACTED. I understand, I really do because I’ve been in that busier than busy place, with a family, a full-time job, and then some.
If someone asks you the question “what has God been teaching you” and you don’t have an answer, that is a clear indication that you are not pursuing God...and not growing.
Does Spiritual Growth Bring Us Closer to God?
Spiritual growth, as in reading the Bible, spending time in fellowship with the church or other believers, prayer and quiet meditation are practices that bring us closer to God. Sometimes, we have space in our lives to linger and meditate more than other times, but busyness is never an excuse to not be growing. In fact, sometimes it's during the busiest seasons that we grow the most.
It was during one of the most difficult times of my life that I learned to read the scripture in a way that affected my life deeply and completely. I HAD to make space for silence and reflection or I would have sunk. We need to start seeing time with God as essential to our survival and not just something on our to-do list.
How Does Knowing Our Weakness Make Us Stronger?
Often, it’s when we are weakest that we seek THE STRENGTH we need to survive. So where are you at right now? Are you sinking? Do you need to be drawing from the SOURCE to survive? Or, maybe you’re in a time of your life where you finally have some space where you can learn to be still and set up some critical habits before the next storm rolls in.
Maybe your weakness is attention, jealousy, fear, despair, addiction, bitterness, or gossip. If you are reading the Bible, God will reveal these areas to you. Give them to Him as an offering and don't allow them to inhibit your growth. Take that step away from the weaknesses that can prevent you from living the full life God intended for you.
Start today! Get a journal, your Bible, and start letting God’s Word seep into your life. Recognize those areas that need attention. It’s a good thing and a blessing to fix the broken spots in us or at least be aware so we can stop making the same mistakes over and over. Let’s look up and move on to a place where we are being better for others and leading by example.