Living with a limp
…because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Your recognition of dependency is God’s opportunity.
“Healthy Christian disciples and leaders are those who consistently live from this emotional and spiritual fullness, and it impacts every aspect of their lives. Emotional fullness is manifest primarily by a high level of awareness—of their feelings their weaknesses and limits, how their past impacts their present, and how others experience them…
Spiritual fullness reveals itself in a healthy balance between their being with God and their doing for God. They are careful not to engage in more activities than their spiritual, physical, and emotional reserves can sustain.”
~Scazzero
24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
Genesis 32:24-32
1. Humble yourself before the Lord.
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
1 Peter 5:6
2. Receive God’s inexhaustible grace.
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
James 4:6 (ESV)
3. Experience life-giving and life-changing community in the Body of Christ
We care for one another.
25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:25- 27
We carry one another.
2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:2
We can comfort and courage to one another.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:3
For when I am weak, then I am strong.