Cindy Powell

I didn’t get it.

No really. For a long, long time–I just didn’t get it.

But then something clicked. I can’t tell you exactly what changed. I just know something very significant has changed. I know the season has changed. Even more …

I know I’ve changed.

For a very long time I’ve clung to Jesus as my strength in weakness. In fact, he has been the strength to my weakness for so long that recently I had a startling revelation:

I’m not weak anymore.

I’m not weak anymore. I’m not broken anymore. I’m healed, whole, fully alive, and STRONG in him.

That may not sound like such a big revelation to anyone else–we’re supposed to be strong in him–but it was shocking to me. I guess because I’ve always seen my “weakness” as such a core part of my identity. I come from a family of very capable and strong people. I was always the marshmallow in the family. I was always the “over” sensitive one. I was the one who couldn’t ever seem to get it together and who just didn’t do life quite as well as everyone else. I thought that was just “me.”

But it’s not a part of the me that he created me to be.

Yes, he made me tender. He made me sensitive. He made me one who needs lots of time away from the craziness and busyness of this world.

Really, he made me for his presence.

But those things don’t make me weak–they just make me who I am.

And who I am is exactly who he made me to be. I’m made in his image. The more time I spend with him, the more I become like him. And he definitely is NOT weak …

Neither am I.

Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not for one minute suggesting I’ve “arrived.” I’m more aware of my need for Jesus than ever before. Apart from him, I can do nothing. There are still desperately weak places within me. And he is still my strength in weakness. He always will be. But weakness is not my identity, because I know the Source of my strength …

HIM.

And he’s made me STRONG.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. –Eph. 6:10