Strong women are everywhere. Strong women teaching. Strong women leading. Strong women running strong households, managing strong businesses, building strong empires. There’s a call that echoes from the heart of the culture for women to be stronger, braver, more capable. We’re supposed to be strong for ourselves and our daughters watching us. I know what a strong woman is and what she does for her church, her family, her community. I get the picture. But do you know what I love to see modeled in godly women? Weakness. 2 Corinthians 12 kind of weakness.
Pure, beautiful, thorn-bearing, Christ-exalting weakness. I long to see spirit-filled, mighty women of God admittedly weak in self and strong before the Lord.
Godly weakness is so beautifully-shocking because it’s the exact opposite of the culture. Weakness makes much of Jesus and little of self. Godly weakness is humble and full of gratitude. It seeks only the kingdom of Christ and no kingdom of self. It never claws for first, but pushes others to the front. Weakness lives with an awareness of exactly what Jesus did for her on the cross and where she would be without her savior. Weakness is bearing the thorn every day God has given her and to bear and proclaiming “His grace is sufficient for me!” It’s true might wrapped up in meek.
Godly Weakness Looks Like:
- She models dependence on Jesus and not her own strength. This makes her bold and confident.
- She is teachable. You learn how to learn by watching her. You see how she reads, studies, listens to her pastor, and drinks from the well of Christ. She shows what “need” looks like and how Christ fills her.
- Her circle is the least of these. She does not build an entourage; she sets a table. All the needy, broken, and tired are embraced around her.
- She submits. Her presence and her posture are submissive. If you follow her she will show you how to submit to her pastor, her husband, her friends, the godly authorities in her life. Her power roars forth in mighty submission.
- Her life makes much of Jesus. When you look at her, you are in awe of God. You wonder how He could use such a normal, ordinary even awkward woman to bring so much fruit for himself.
- She is joyful and content. Since her strength does not come from herself but from the cross, she is light-hearted and joyful to be around.
Godly Weakness is not:
- Sin. Weakness isn’t boasting in “a sin struggle.” Of course we still sin, but we also wage war against sin and see God sanctify us more every year if we are in Christ.
- Living with Abuse: If you are in an abusive situation, seek help and get out immediately. The call to be weak in Christ never means submitting to an abuser. Seek counsel.
Weak Made Strong
Enough voices are shouting at us to be stronger. Let’s give younger women a different call. Let us show them how to lead, serve, and teach from our weaknesses to put on display the mighty strength of Jesus. Our flesh offers them nothing to desire or copy anyway. When they look closely at us, may they be in awe of a mighty God who could use such a jar of clay.
The next time you’re tempted to despise your own weakness, think on Paul’s words and boast all the more because his power is made perfect in our weakness. When we are weak, sister, we are mighty strong in the Lord. May he keep us weak, humble, and broken all the days of our ministry that Christ Jesus may be magnified in our lives. That is strong indeed.
2 Cor 12:9 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.