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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
– 2 Corinthians 12:9
When we offer our obedience out of love for God, we allow his grace to perfect our weakness. It is from this place of weakness that we share in his strength, and it is from his strength that we are fruitful.
The world tells us to hide your weakness and show off your strengths. Nobody wants to be weak or admit to weakness, and I am sure we have all seen someone deny clear wrongdoing to avoid admitting weakness. But this is not the way of God. Like with Gideon, he calls us in our weakness and asks us to acknowledge our weakness and submit it to him. In choosing to obey God, we acknowledge our weakness before him.
The world will cruelly punish the first sign of weakness and will take advantage of it at the first opportunity. But God is gracious. He is not like the world. When we submit our weakness to him and obey him, he perfects our weakness and shares his strength with us. This is what allows us to be fruitful.
Take some time to reflect on your own weakness and submit them to the Lord. Meditate on his kindness. He will not treat weakness the way the world does, and is gracious to turn our weakness to strength in him.