Still too strong

I've been spending a lot of time in 2 Corinthians in the last few weeks, and have been struck and refreshed again by the gloriously good news that God delights to use the weak and incapable. But I've also been thinking: it's more than that. God uses the weak and incapable because they are the only people fit for his purposes. Only a clay jar can display God's glory, because only a clay jar is weak enough to make it clear that the container has no glory of its own.

You could learn the same lesson all over Scripture. Gideon is a prime example. He cannot take 32,000 people into battle; he cannot even take 10,000. Otherwise Israel might say 'my own hand has saved me'.

Sometimes I feel desperately weak. Sometimes I think our churches are desperately weak. But I wonder if we're still just a bit too strong - too capable in ourselves to display God's glory.

So I find myself praying: Lord, weaken us where we are strong in ourselves, so that we can be strong in you.