Weakness Is Strength

[The Lord said to Moses,] “Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”

Exodus 4:12

God was calling Moses to a task that was bigger than he was. Moses’ immediate response to the call was to catalog all his inadequacies. He defined himself by his weakness. God was sending him to be his spokesperson, and Moses’ one fear seemed to be that he couldn’t speak well. God wanted him to do the one thing he felt most inadequate to do.

How does a man whose reputation used to be that he was “powerful in both speech and action” (Acts 7:22) become a man who describes himself as “not very good with words” (Exodus 4:10)? I think that in the forty-year desert training period, God weaned Moses from his self-confidence. God’s purpose was not to leave Moses insecure and weak, but instead for Moses to transfer his confidence to God. When it comes to God’s power, Moses’ weaknesses and inadequacies were irrelevant. Moses wasn’t the linchpin. The only thing to measure is the power of God, and the power of God never comes up short.

Look what God promises Moses and, by extension, you and me: “Whatever you need in the moment, I will supply.” In this case, Moses needed the right words. But whatever we need for the task to which we are called, God will supply. He will give us what we need when we need it.

We don’t have to worry ahead about whether we will know what to do or what to say because the Spirit of God, who knows the mind of God, lives in us. He has direct access to our minds and can make a direct deposit of the wisdom we need (see 1 Corinthians 2:10-16; James 1:5).

His promise gives us the courage to be on call every minute of every day, ready to respond to his command. There is no need to inventory our weaknesses when God’s strength is the determining factor. When we transfer all our confidence from ourselves to him, what is left to fear?

Lord, I depend on you. I thank you that my weakness does not hinder your strength.

Before [God] furnishes the abundant supply, we must first be made conscious of our emptiness. Before he gives strength, we must be made to feel our weakness. Slow, painfully slow, are we to learn this lesson; and slower still to own our nothingness and take the place of helplessness before the Mighty One.

A. W. Pink(1886–1952), English evangelist and Bible scholar