Mighty God

[Read Isaiah 9:6]

I’ve had various friends and family members who have struggled with addictions over the years. It’s a painful thing to walk alongside them and watch them struggle and fail, struggle and fail, struggle and fail. Addictions become so ingrained in our lives and bodies, that they are extremely difficult to overcome. 

I remember walking into the bathroom of someone who was going through an addiction recovery program. As I washed my hands, I looked at the mirror and plastered all over the mirror were little notes that said things like, “I’m strong!” “I have the power to overcome!” “Look deep within and find your power” and so on and so forth. I remember immediately thinking, “What a joke!” This person KNOWS that these things are not true! They know that they are not strong enough to overcome this addiction. They have tried and tried and tried to overcome this addiction by themselves and they have failed over and over again. Yet, now someone is telling them to just try harder, yell louder, be stronger, then you’ll be able to do it. They are being told that if they just keep telling themselves they are strong and powerful, then they will actually be strong and powerful. Yet, the entire time they are speaking these statements into their lives, they know they are lying to themselves. 

We all like to think of ourselves as strong, powerful, and capable people. We want to believe these things about ourselves. Yet, when the rubber hits the road, we know that we are not. We are truly helpless…and that scares the living daylights out of us. Deep down inside, we know that we do not have control over much. In reality, we go through life surrounded by things that we have absolutely no control over. We are helpless…and that scares us, which is why we pretend to be strong and in control. 

This is why the first step of Alcoholics Anonymous is, “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable.” This is true regarding all of life. I realize this is contrary to everything that is being said in the culture around us. Yet, it’s true. If you want to begin moving forward in your life, the first thing you need to do is admit that you are powerless and helpless. That may sound contradictory, but I’m being absolutely serious. If you want to begin moving forward with your life, you need to recognize the reality of how helpless and frail you really are. It does you no good to live in a dream world and to keep lying to yourself. In order to move forward, you have to accept the reality of your helplessness. 

This is what scripture tells us. In 2 Corinthians we read, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV). We have the freedom to admit our helplessness because we serve a Mighty God. We serve a Messiah whose very name is Mighty God. So, we have the freedom to admit that we are not Mighty. We have the freedom to admit that we are helpless and frail and weak. We don’t have to pretend. In reality, this passage is telling us that our weakness and frailty and helplessness is there to show us the reality of how Mighty our God is. It’s to show us that God is Mighty and we are not. We live frail lives—like jars of clay that are easily broken—in order to truly recognize our weakness and the incredible strength of God. 

Do you understand now, why the culture can’t accept the truth that we are weak and frail? They can’t accept that we are weak and frail because they have rejected the Mighty God. If you admit that you are helpless in the midst of a world that is complete chaos, then you lose all hope. So, since the world has rejected the Mighty God, and they recognize that we all need someone mighty in our lives, they decided to make themselves the mighty ones. Since there is no greater power than themselves, the world has decided that they need to scream their power louder and louder in order to believe it. That’s the only way they can have any hope in the world. 

Yet, deep down inside, they all know they are lying. We have very little control over our lives. You have absolutely no control over whether you’ll get cancer or not. You have absolutely no control over when you will die. You have absolutely no control over the weather and the seasons, over natural disasters. Ask the farmers right now how much control they have over their harvest. You have absolutely no control over your body aging and breaking down. You actually have no control over healing in your body, either. I remember Rachel talking to me about the reality that doctors cannot bring about healing, they can only do damage. They can only cut and splice and remove, but it’s the body that does the healing—the body that God created. You don’t have control over that, really. 

We are not the mighty ones—God is the mighty God. The longer we attempt to assert our own power and might, the longer we try to pretend that we are the mighty ones, the longer it will be before we actually move forward. You cannot move forward while living in a lie. You cannot move forward while trying to live in a make-believe world. The sooner we accept the reality that we are weak and helpless, but we serve a Mighty God who is all powerful, the sooner we will be able to live the life God has called us to live—the sooner we will be able to move forward. 

Here’s the reality. By pretending that we are strong, we actually make ourselves weak. By pretending to be strong, we are relying on our own power—which is very small indeed. However, when we recognize our own frailty and weakness, and rely solely on the Mighty God and His power, then we finally have real strength. We begin to live lives that look like this: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:8–12, NIV). That’s real power! Not relying on ourselves and our own strength, but walking step-by-step trusting in the power of God. Beat down but not crushed. Never in despair. Never abandoned. Never destroyed. Because we have a Mighty God who is always by our side. We have recognized that we are not strong enough, and have given up trying to do everything in our own strength, and have decided to walk step-by-step trusting in the power of our Mighty God. 

I remember sitting with a young man immediately after a major tragedy. A mutual friend of ours had just committed suicide, leaving a pregnant wife and a young child behind. It was unbelievably hard. After I heard about the suicide, I went over to the house and spent time with his wife, providing comfort and counsel. As expected, she was extremely heartbroken and didn’t know what to do, what to say, how to respond. She felt very helpless. The next day, she called me and asked if I would meet with a friend who was really struggling with the suicide. As I talked with him, he looked at me and said, “How in the world does she have so much strength in the midst of this?” Now, if you had asked her, she didn’t feel strong, she felt like a mess, she felt like her world was falling apart, she felt like she couldn’t function. Yet, as this young man looked into her life, he saw strength that he didn’t recognize. I look at him and said, “It’s her faith. Even in the midst of this tragedy, she is trusting in God.”

If you would have asked her if she was strong in that moment, she would have said that she was a mess. Yet, someone looking from the outside in, looking through the sobbing and the tears, saw her faith and saw that she was hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; confused, but not in despair; beat down, but not defeated. Not because of her own strength or power—she had none in that moment—but because of the power of our Mighty God working through her weakness. 

This is the key. The apostle Paul repeatedly found himself in extremely difficult situations—in seemingly hopeless situations. In one of those situations he repeatedly prayed to God, asking God to remove the struggle from his life—to remove the pain and the difficulty. He couldn’t take it anymore!! He wasn’t strong enough!! You know what God said to him? He said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV). God looked him in the eye and said, “I know you’re not strong enough. I know that you are weak. I know that you can’t get through this on your own. That’s exactly where my power is made perfect…in your weakness.” 

So, how does Paul respond to what God said to him? “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 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 12:9–10, NIV). Paul says, if that’s the case, he’s going to boast in his weakness. No, more than that, he’s actually going to DELIGHT in his weakness. He’s going to delight in insults that are hurled at him. He’s going to delight in the hardships that come his way. He’s going to delight in persecutions. He’s going to delight in difficulties. Do you hear that? He’s going to DELIGHT in these things. DELIGHT. 

He’s not going to try to cover these things up—pretending that everything is fine. He’s not going to pretend like he’s strong enough to handle this on his own. He’s not going to become so defeated and hopeless that he wallows in self-pity. He’s actually going to delight in his weakness. He’s actually going to delight in his hardships. 

Why? Why would anyone do that? Because it’s through his weakness that Christ’s power will rest on him. Because it’s through his hardships and trials and difficulties that Christ’s power will rest on him. No other way. There’s no other way that Christ’s power is going to rest on him, but through his own weakness.

If Paul decides to “pull himself up by his bootstraps,” there will be no power of Christ. If Paul tries to pretend like he is strong enough to take care of things on his own, there is no power of Christ. If Paul decides to pretend like everything is ok and that nothing is wrong, there is no power of Christ. Because when we are weak, then we are strong. 

That’s what we see in this Advent season. It’s what threw everybody off. Everybody was looking for a powerful Messiah that was going to come in and overthrow the Roman government and put everyone in their place. Yet, Christ came as a helpless baby in a manger. The one whose name is Mighty God, was born as a helpless baby in a manger. The one whose name is Mighty God suffered throughout his life on this earth. The one whose name is Mighty God endured the cross, dying for the forgiveness of our sins, so that all who believe in Him might have eternal life. It is also the one whose name is Mighty God, that rose victorious from the grave, whose power and might to overcome the world came through weakness and death. When he was weak, he was strong. 

As we wait during this Advent season, leading up to Christmas, it can be a difficult season of remembering, mourning, and grieving. Don’t pretend that you are strong and have it all together. There’s no power there. Acknowledge your weakness and helplessness, then look to the Mighty God for strength to carry you through. His grace is sufficient. His power is made perfect in your weakness. So, look to him, trust Him, and find strength in the midst of your weakness.