God's Strength in Our Weakness - Devotional

Series: Building Our Relationship with God

When we face challenges that highlight our limitations, it can be tempting to focus on our lack instead of God’s sufficiency. Thankfully, the Bible reminds us that our weakness is not a barrier to God. Where we fall short, His grace and power can be seen most clearly. It can be helpful to cry out to God to show Himself strong, rather than calling on God to remove our weakness. This gives God room to move however He sees fit. After all, how sure can we be that we have correctly identified the weakness? Some of the things we call on God to fix in us or our circumstances exist for our good or to be used for His glory. Sometimes our desire for strength or improvement masks a desire to be self-sufficient.

By intentionally abstaining from food or other comforts, we remind ourselves of our reliance on God for sustenance, strength, and direction. Through fasting, we can reduce distractions from focusing on God and prioritising His will. We can expect to see God reveal His power in ways we may not have otherwise noticed. Our weaknesses begin to shrink in significance as we train ourselves on God's magnificence.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul writes about how God’s grace sustained him through hardship, declaring that God’s power is most evident when we depend on Him. As we lean on God to sustain us as we fast, we experience this truth for ourselves and can carry this understanding through the rest of our lives.

Fasting enhances our walk with God as it builds reliance and invites us to reflect upon His power, Lordship and care for us. Fasting also calls us to align with God’s heart. Joel 2:12 reminds us that fasting, coupled with prayer and repentance, draws us closer to Him. We do not fast to prove our devotion to God, but to acknowledge and surrender ourselves to His all-sufficiency - which matters far more than any of our weaknesses.

Building Challenge: This week, build your trust in God’s strength through fasting. Choose your fast, making it meaningful but manageable. Set your focus for the fast and schedule time to reflect on God's power made perfect in your weakness. Pray to be dependent on God in a specific area and praise God for His strength.

God's Strength in Our Weakness

Reflect on how God desires to show His strength in an area of weakness as you Write the Scriptures below:

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” 2 Corinthians 12:9

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:29-31

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;" Joel 2:12

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Matthew 6:16-18

So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty. Ezra 8:23

When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. Psalm 69:10

While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Acts 13:2-3

All verses are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV) or the English Standard Version Amplified (ESVUK).

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