3 Heroes God Made Strong in Their Weakness
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In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul is wrestling with a thorn in the flesh. God doesn’t take his thorn but instead tells Paul this: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
God’s power is clearly shown through human weakness. Now, don’t hear that wrong. It’s not as if God has to cripple humanity in order to show his power. He doesn’t need to debase in order to be strong. But we’re often blinded by our own ingenuity. The idols we craft can be blinding in their man-made splendor. In order to help us see, God at times will dim the lights of our idols so we can see more clearly His power.
Certainly, Paul’s life is one where we can see that God was shown to be strong through Paul’s weakness. But Paul isn’t the only one. There are many other biblical heroes who show the power of God through their own weakness. Here are three examples.
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Why Does God Show His Power in Our Weakness?

Every summer my wife and I take our kids to a campground in Southwest, Missouri. There is a spring fed creek set against the backdrop of a mammoth Ozark hill. If you go at the right time of year – and we always plan our campground to hit at the right time – you will see fireflies along the hillside.
That sentence doesn’t capture it. I can’t take a photo to a capture it either. It is simply breath-taking though. Thousands of lightning bugs (fireflies) light up the hillside. They seem to twinkle to their own beautiful song. It is a wonder. We just sit on the tailgate and marvel at not only the stars up in the sky millions of miles away, but also these little imitators of glory, as they shine their light with all the vigor which God has given them.
You can’t see them in the city. There are too many streetlights.
God’s promise to Abraham, that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars, isn’t as breathtaking in a big city. You can count the stars. But there, by Roaring River, on a warm August evening, you can’t count the stars or the fireflies. Because there they get to shine in all their brilliance. No distractions. No city lights.
I think it’s important to remember this when we think about God showing His power in our weakness. God is radically dedicated to our redemption. He has promised to work for all eternity for our highest joy. And that greatest joy is to see Him in all His splendor.
Before we look at examples of God showing His power in our weakness, it is important to wrestle with this question. Why does God seem to show up when we are at our weakest moment? Why does he not act sooner?
It might seem a little cruel for God to only show up when He is going to get the credit. If he could have solved Sarah’s barrenness when she was much younger, would it not have been better for Him to do this? Why wait so long? It’s because our greatest good is to see the greatness of God. And our eyes aren’t so good at times. We might only spot a few lightning bugs while surrounded by so many artificial lights. But when these imposters are gone — we can see so much better.
It's not that God shows up with His power only when it’s dark outside. It’s more so that we can’t see His power until some of the lights are turned down. Here are three Biblical stories of heroes, through whom God showed His power in some of their weakest moments.
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1. Abraham and Sarah

“We’re going to have a baby!”
Can you imagine that conversation that Abraham had with his wife Sarah after his encounter with God? People in their 90s don’t have children. As the text said, “The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.” Even when an angel of the Lord tells her that she will have a child, she laughs at the prospect of this. Her response is comical:
“After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”
It’s almost as if Sarah is saying to the angle, “Are you not aware how babies are made?” The language here implies that the couple has not had intercourse for quite some time. It’s not simply that Sarah cannot be pregnant, it’s also hinting that Abraham is also impotent.
Why does God make the promise to Abraham when he’s so old? Why wait until Sarah is not only barren but she has been carrying around the pain of infertility for decades?
Because it is through the impossibility of this situation that we see God’s ability to bring life. If God can give life through Abraham and Sarah, then he can give life to wicked and stone-cold dead hearts. Their story shows that God is the one who “gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not” (Romans 4:17).
Related articles
5 Things to Know about God’s Promise to Abraham
How Abraham Teaches Us to Trust God’s Good Provision
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2. Jeremiah

What words do you connect with emotions? Do you use words like “stable” or a word like “fickle”? Usually, when we think of emotions we think of unpredictable waves. Emotions can be chaotic, uncontrolled things.
Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. Throughout the book which bears his name, and especially in Lamentations, we see the prophet who seems to wear his emotions on his sleeve. When he is first called by God, he is young. Who would listen to this weakling?
None of this is meant to imply that emotions are actually weak. But rather to say that when we are flooded by emotions, we feel incredibly weak. That was Jeremiah’s situation. And this is why he cried out to God so many times. It’s ironic, though, that Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet, because God also called him something different. The prophet who was made of iron (Jeremiah 1:18). Emotional iron.
How is this possible? Because God shows his power through the vessel of Jeremiah. I like how Eugene Peterson says this:
“Jeremiah’s life is evidence that the visions were educational curriculum that directed development from an insecure youth to a solid, mature adult. Jeremiah was shaped by the visions, not by the fashions of the day, not by his feelings about himself. We know that he often felt terrible and that he was treated terribly. He often felt weak; he often was near despair. In fact, he was always strong. His emotions often failed him; his faith always held fast.” (Peterson, Run With the Horses, 56)
Jeremiah’s weakness was placed into the hands of the Lord. And what we see as a result is a man who as an honest and authentic struggler. But he was a man who truly had a relationship with God, and God’s greatness was displayed through Jeremiah’s prophetic voice.
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3. Peter

I bet in his early days the apostle Peter would have hated to be on this list. We get the idea from reading the gospels that Peter was a guy who was a bit “in your face.” Jesus quoted the Scriptures, told them all that they would fall away, and Peter had the audacity to tell Jesus that even if all those other jokers denied him, he’d never deny Jesus. He was read to go to prison for Jesus. He’d even die.
But apparently there was something about a little servant girl that caused the big brute to cower. He not only denied Jesus once, he outright denied Jesus three times. Peter wasn’t as strong as he thought. He was often overcome with fear. Peter was indeed weak.
While Peter hid his weakness behind machismo, he was limited in how God used him. But when he heard the rooster crow and met the Lord’s eyes, the game was up. Peter couldn’t hide any longer. He wasn’t a brave warrior fighting alongside Jesus; he was a coward.
This would not be the end of Peter’s story. He was in fact restored by Jesus. But he wasn’t only restored, he was also empowered. It was when Peter acknowledged his weakness that he was finally able to shepherd. Reading through 1 and 2 Peter it is obvious that he is a changed man. But we also see this in Acts 4.
Peter and John are before the Sanhedrin, with their lives hanging in the balance, and they both boldly testify to the Lord. God’s power is shown through Peter’s boldness. The life of Peter shows us what happens when our weakness is acknowledged and we depend upon the Spirit. It turns cowards into humble and brave gospel proclaimers.
God Uses Weak People
These are only three people in the Bible who God used their weakness to show His power. In reality, we could have mentioned almost every person in Scripture whom God used. He always uses weak vessels. And his power is displayed through this weakness.
God does the same things today. Rather than hiding our weakness or denying its existence, we do well to take every weakness to Jesus. It can often be the point of our deepest hurt and our deepest sorrow and our greatest weakness where the glory of God will shine the brightest.
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