Day Twenty-Six
There’s a particular feeling that comes over you when you feel a conversation slipping away from you, when the other participants seem to be speaking a different language because the subject matter has taken a turn into things out of your realm of knowledge and understanding. When that happens to me, and the others eventually turn to me expecting input of some kind, I have a go-to response:
“I’ve got nothing.”
It’s a humbling feeling, one that assaults our understandably human desire to be in-the-know and in control. We don’t like to admit when we have reached the end of our usefulness, when we literally have nothing of value to add to a situation. It’s dispiriting. It’s difficult. It’s diminishing. At least it is as far as this world is concerned.
In a spiritual sense, though, being brought to the end of ourselves is a good thing. When Jesus says, “Take up your cross,” he is not saying, “Show me what you’ve got. Impress me.” No, he’s saying the opposite: “Abandon yourself to me. Stop relying on your own strength. Lay down all of your claims to self-sufficiency and embrace the life I came to give.” He made that clear when he went on to say:
“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”—Mark 8:35 (NIV)
The Apostle Paul echoed this when he wrote:
“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”—Colossians 3:3 (NIV)
We are, in the words of the hymn-writer, “children of weakness.” But that is not a bad thing. When we acknowledge our weakness, we open ourselves to his strength. The works of the flesh will ultimately fail and be exposed for their emptiness and folly, but when we lay down our lives at the foot of the cross and put to death any confidence we have in our own strength and cleverness, God is able to work in us and through us in ways we can’t even begin to imagine.
Nowhere is the bankruptcy of the flesh made more evident than at the cross of Christ. We come to the cross acknowledging that “all our righteousness is as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6, MEV), and we are brought to our knees with the realization that the righteous one has taken all that filthiness upon himself. What can we say in response to this? Three words come to mind:
“I’ve got nothing.”
It’s true. The cross humbles and silences us. We have nothing we can offer in return, at least in our own strength. But when we instead offer our hearts and lives to the crucified one, putting to death any claims of self-sufficiency, he proves over and over again that he is our “all in all.” He has paid the price we could not pay…so that we might live the life we could not otherwise live.
I hear the Savior say,
Thy strength indeed is small!
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all
Read the rest of the lyrics here.
Questions for Reflection:
1) How has Jesus shown himself to be your “all in all,” and how has that transformed your understanding of yourself and God?
2) Even the Apostle Paul, a well-studied religious leader, realized that apart from the power of God he would not be fruitful in his ministry. In 2 Corinthians 3 he said: “Yet we don’t see ourselves as capable enough to do anything in our own strength, for our true competence flows from God’s empowering presence.”—2 Corinthians 3:5 (TPT) Spend some time reflecting on this truth and your response to these words. Pray that God would reveal even more of his “empowering presence” to you.
3) In what ways do you possibly still resist the title, “child of weakness?” What are you holding onto that needs to be brought to death, so that the life of Jesus might dwell in you more deeply?
4) In what ways right now might God be calling you to “watch and pray?”
5) Read and reflect on these verses. Let them lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:
“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. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”—2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV)