Strength

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 KJV

9.   And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.  Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

10.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

How far can our own strength take us?  People say that in a burst of adrenaline we can do amazing things, abnormal feats of strength, like a mother lifting a car off of her child.  Each one of us has differing amounts of strength.  My husband is capable of lifting hundreds of pounds at a single time.  I am capable of carrying around a 30 pound toddler all day.  Differing strengths, differing purposes.  We must have physical strength to endure this life.  But what of our spiritual strength?  In 2 Corinthians chapter 12 we read of the thorn in Paul’s flesh.  3 times he asked the Lord to remove it from his flesh.  The Lord’s reply?  My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.  His strength is made perfect in our weakness.  When we are at our lowest, spiritually and physically, His strength is made perfect.

In May of 1940 in the Netherlands, terror struck.  The German Blitzkrieg ran through the country and within months the “Nazification” of the Dutch people began and lives were forever changed.  48 year old watchmaker, Corrie ten Boom, found herself in the midst of the Holocaust.  She lived with her 80 year old father and together with other members of their family, they led the Dutch Resistance against the Nazis.  Corrie was a devoutly religious woman who had established a youth club for teenage girls in her community, teaching them of God and his love and forgiveness. She knew she must do whatever she could to help the Jewish people.  A secret room was built into Corrie’s bedroom above her father’s watch shop, behind a false wall.  It was no bigger than a small closet but could hold 6 people standing upright.  Numerous people moved in and out of the Beje house in Haarlem.  Some would stay only hours, others days, while new “safe houses” were located.  The entire ten Boom family risked their lives day in and day out to help these people.  In February of 1944, a fellow Dutchman informed the Gestapo of the ten Booms activities.  The Gestapo raided the house and kept it under surveillance.  35 people, including all of the ten Boom family, were arrested.  However, though the whole house was thoroughly searched, the 6 Jews concealed in the hiding place in Corrie’s room were not found.  They were rescued nearly 3 days later.  It is estimated that the ten Booms and the others in the Dutch Resistance saved the lives of 800 Jewish people.   Corrie and her family were taken prisoners and held captive in Nazi concentration camps.  Her father died 12 days after being captured.  She and her 59 year old sister Betsie, were moved in and out of 3 concentration camps in just 10 months, the final being Ravensbruck.  Corrie and Betsie faced unspeakable horrors within this concentration camp.  Women were starved, beaten, gassed, and tortured to death.  Barracks that were built to hold 400 women, held 1400, making living conditions worse than deplorable.  And yet through it all, Corrie and Betsie remained faithful, witnessing to the women they were imprisoned with using a smuggled Bible.  Many women were led to Christ in this nightmarish place.  Betsie died behind the walls of Ravensbruck.  Corrie lost her entire family to the Nazis.  It is said that she was released due to a clerical error, just 1 week before all the women her age in Ravensbruck were executed, proving Christ can use even paperwork as a catalyst to see His will accomplished.  Corrie went on to begin a worldwide ministry that took her to 60 different countries, telling her story, and praising God and telling of his love and forgiveness.  She never became bitter about her loss and her time in the concentration camps.  She praised Him and thanked Him under such horrific conditions.  Even thanking Him for the fleas in the barracks that kept the guards away while she read from her Bible and witnessed to the other women.  She did just as Paul said to do, she gloried in her infirmities so that the power of Christ could rest upon her. 

Suddenly our infirmities, our weaknesses, our ailments, seem very miniscule.  Corrie, like Paul, turned to God during her greatest time of weakness and struggle and He made her strong.  His strength became hers and she survived. 

We may not always understand our trials and tribulations.  We may not always understand how God’s will is being done.  But we must remember,

“There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” Corrie ten Boom

We must take pleasure in our infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake.  For when we are weak, then are we strong in Christ.