Women in the Word Wednesday: Strength in Weakness

I love the story of David and Goliath.  It is so often told by people the way we would read Goldilocks to our kids, but we have to pause and remember that this TRUE, BIBLICAL account happened.  Small, young David stood up to a mighty, GIANT warrior with complete faith in God and what he could do with the unequitable situation.  David knew God loved to take unfavorable circumstances and turn them into a success for His clear honor and glory.  His faith and trust in God was strong from a young age.

We too can practice trust in God when circumstances don't seem to be in our favor, but God is calling us to have faith in Him and trust there is a reason for what He allows in our lives.

Yesterday I had Micah's speech IEP.  He has severe delays in articulation but is actually high average in language expression and reception.  In other words, he talks all the time and also understands what is said to him, but he is having problems pronouncing the words clearly.  He is very hard to understand--even for Ryan and I who hear Micahnese all the time.  They aren't sure if it is a disconnect between mind and motor control in his mouth or if he is just needing to strengthen muscles to get some sounds he is missing.  Time will give us a better picture.

I am completely confident that this weakness of Micah's is all in God's perfect plan.  God can use this in Micah's life for so many reasons.  It could be to give Micah humility, it could be to have one of Micah's speech teachers come to repentance and faith through God using us in his or her life, it could be to grow ME in trust or humility, it could be to grow me in empathy toward families with any special education needs (I was a teacher prior to kids), it could be to show Micah that any success he has later in life is controlled and chosen completely by his Creator, or it could be to bring Micah, somehow, to salvation.  Maybe it is merely to remind us this world is flawed and failing--to have us keep an eternal hope and perspective.  These are all guesses or ideas.  We don't know, but I am confident I don't need to know but, rather, to trust.  God is sovereign in Micah's "weakness."

Wouldn't that be something if Micah was a teaching pastor someday, speaking from the stage with clear, articulate instruction from God's Word?  Who knows?  Perhaps God will allow speech to always be a struggle for Micah.  I can't control the circumstances, but I can be obedient to trust in God's plan.  God is able to allow and then overthrow any difficult circumstance.  Even if He allows the weakness to continue, as with Paul's "thorn", there is a sovereign reason.  What is your current Goliath?  Are you trusting God to be sovereign and omnipotent in every circumstance?

II Corinthians 12:7-10   "So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."