40 Days of Faith: Day 35

Hebrews 11:34b -- …were made strong out of weakness…

You may have heard the phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Glenn Cunningham’s story certainly relates to this. During the 1930s, as a young boy, Glenn was caught in a horrific schoolhouse fire. His legs were so badly burned that doctors recommended amputation. They told his parents he would never walk again. But Glenn refused to accept it. With braces, crutches, and fierce determination, he began the long, painful process of retraining his legs to move.

What seemed like the end of his life became the very stage for God’s strength. Glenn not only walked, but he also ran and he ran so well that he went on to set the world record for the mile in 1934 and competed in two Olympic Games, earning the nickname “The Kansas Ironman.” From a hospital bed of weakness to the world’s fastest man, Glenn’s story reminds us that God can turn our weakest moments into a testimony of strength.[1]
 
 Has God ever done that for you? My mile time isn’t getting faster, that’s for sure, but I have seen God bring something powerful out of situations where I was completely helpless. As you look through the testimony of Scripture, this seems to be a common theme.

 Consider Samson. Samson was set apart from his birth as a Nazarite. This vow gave him to the Lord and as a sign of it, he was not to cut his hair, drink wine, or touch any unclean thing. Samson also experienced the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him in extraordinary ways, enabling feats of supernatural strength (Judges 14:6; 15:14–15). He tore apart a lion with his bare hands, struck down a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, and carried away the gates of Gaza on his shoulders (Judges 16:3).

 But Samson is also remembered as a deeply flawed judge of Israel. He was impulsive, often acting on raw emotion rather than wisdom, as when he demanded a Philistine wife simply because she pleased him (Judges 14:2–3). He was lustful and sexually immoral, pursuing women outside God’s covenant people, including a prostitute (Judges 16:1) and Delilah (Judges 16:4). He was proud and arrogant, boasting in his own strength and forgetting that it was the Spirit of the Lord who empowered him (Judges 15:16). His actions were often driven by revenge rather than by a righteous desire to deliver Israel (Judges 15:7–8). Though set apart as a Nazarite, he was disobedient to his vows, touching dead bodies (Judges 14:8–9), drinking at feasts, and finally revealing the secret of his strength to Delilah (Judges 16:17). He was also foolish and easily deceived, ignoring repeated betrayals until Delilah finally delivered him to the Philistines (Judges 16:6–21). Undisciplined and reckless, Samson wasted much of his God-given gift of strength through careless living instead of consistent faithfulness.

 This careless living landed him in a Philistine prison where he was tortured, and his eyes were gouged out. Yet, in this place, God met Samson there. His final act of faith came in weakness, when blinded and humiliated, he prayed for strength one last time and brought down the Philistine temple, striking a decisive blow against Israel’s oppressors (Judges 16:28–30). Though inconsistent, Samson’s story testifies that God can use even deeply flawed individuals to accomplish His purposes and that true strength is found not in human might but in dependence on the Lord.

 Beyond Samson, as you read in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul actually relishes his weaknesses. In his own defense of his apostleship, he opens chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians, stating that he has every reason to boast as an Apostle. It appears he even is referring to himself, when in chapter 12, he talks about a man he knew that had gone to the third heaven and had been given revelations that were unspeakable. Notice then what he says about a thorn in his flesh.

 2 Corinthians 12:7b-9 states:
 Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 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.

 The irony here is that both Samson and the Apostle Paul learned the same thing – the truth that God’s power is made perfect in weakness. One man was so arrogant, he put himself in the predicament to come to the end of himself and ask for help. The other man was prevented from becoming arrogant through some sort of trial or suffering. Yet, both men learned the same truth.

 Faith doesn’t deny weakness—it embraces it as the very place where God shows up. Glenn Cunningham, Samson, and Paul each remind us that our frailty is not the end of the story. In fact, it’s often the beginning of God’s greatest work in us. What weakness are you carrying today—physical, emotional, relational, or spiritual? Instead of hiding it or despising it, bring it before the Lord. Ask Him to turn your weakness into strength, so that His power may rest on you.

 Prayer:
Father, I confess my weakness before You today. I don’t want to rely on my own strength, which fails me, but on Yours, which never runs dry. Teach me to boast in my weakness so that Christ’s power may rest on me. Where I feel empty, fill me with Your Spirit. Where I feel helpless, strengthen me with Your grace. Use my frailty as a stage for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
 
[1] U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, “Glenn Cunningham: Miracle Mile Runner” (usopm.org).