Sunday, December 11, 2011

He Strengthens Us

One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon talks about weaknesses and strengths:

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

Ether 12:27

I taught the 12 and 13 year-old girls at church recently and the lesson was about how much the Lord loves us, and then goes on to how he makes our weaknesses strong, if we let him.  The second part was based on this scripture.  I have always loved this scripture, but something jumped out at me during the lesson.  I'll explain.

When we come to the Lord, he shows us our weaknesses.  This can be painful.  We can choose several things: anger, insecurity; but what he really wants us to do is be humble.   It says so in line two.  These are the two things that the Lord provides from weakness:

1. He sets the stage for us to be humble.
2. His grace is sufficient for us.
He then tells us the conditions for overcoming our weakness:

1. We humble ourselves before him.
2. We have faith in him.

Then he makes our "weak things become strong" to us.

Here's what jumped out at me during the lesson: the two things that the Lord provides from weakness, and the two things that we do to overcome weakness are the same things. They are combined below:

1. He sets the stage for humility/we choose to be humble.
2. His grace is sufficient/we have faith in him (that his grace is sufficient).

He set us up to succeed!   He sets the stage for us to be strong, to overcome our weakness.  It is dependent on our accepting and choosing those conditions.  He is so kind, and loving, and he truly can make weak things strong to us.  What a powerful scripture!

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