Denying our strengths and weaknesses causes us to believe the lie that we are being humble. Yet God wants us to celebrate our strengths and confess our weaknesses (and sins) to him. Our denial can drive us to feel shameful or prideful, because we will miss God’s delight with us in our strengths and his compassion and help for us in our weakness.
As I shared in last week’s post “You are Profoundly Significant,” God expresses joy in giving us many talents. From the Parable of the Talents, we know that God wants us to invest our gifts in his kingdom (Matt.25:14-30.) God praised the two faithful servants who used the talents he gave them. The third servant did not use his talent. He denied his ability to invest that talent. He buried it. Was he truly humble and then praised for that? No, he was condemned for claiming he could not invest the talent. Was he praised for his belief that he was weak and then for hiding his weaknesses? No, he was condemned for not asking for help. By doing things his own way and not asking for help he was not using his talent (verse 25, “I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.”) Remember the master told him he could have gotten help by “investing it in the bank,” (verse 27.) He wasted his potential and was condemned. He was prideful, because he denied what God had given him, and because he did not admit to his weakness and need for help.
God was not pleased with this man, and he will not be pleased with us either, if we deny our talents and refuse to admit we need help and never ask for it. We must aggressively attack this lie of denial. It displeases God, and it shames us. God was not pleased when Adam and Eve denied their sin in the Garden of Eden. God knew they had sinned, but he gave them a chance to admit their sin and call for help (Genesis, chapter 3.)He also knew Adam and Eve did not know how to cover their nakedness well, so even when they didn’t ask for help, he killed an animal and made a proper (long lasting) covering for them (Gen.3:21.) But their actions grieved God.
The Bible actually uses “grieved” to describe God in multiple places such as when God spoke of mankind’s wickedness at the time of Noah’s Ark: Genesis 6:6, “The Lord was sorry he made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his spirit.” We also see this with the Israelites grieving God in the wilderness (Psalm 78:40 “How often they rebelled in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert.”)
We can grieve our beloved Lord by our unwillingness to admit we have sinned, or that we are having a hard time in life. When we deny our weakness, we do not allow God to help us. And when we deny our strengths, we may become fearful and surprisingly prideful. For example, Saul was a physically huge and strong man. He stood head and shoulders above other men (1Sam.10:23.) He easily plowed fields with oxen and then cut a pair of them up in 12 pieces when he learned that his fellow Israelites (of Jabesh Village) were threatened by the Philistines (1Sam.11:7.)
Yet this huge, powerful man, possibly the biggest man in all of Israel, cowered before the godless Philistine, Goliath of Gath. No man was better equipped to fight Goliath than huge Saul. He was the biggest Israelite. And Saul also had God on his side. He had heard the prophet Samuel speak God’s miraculous prophecies, and then Saul saw them come true. So, Saul had the best physical advantage of any Israelite, and he had God’s miraculous protection. Saul already had a victory over the Philistines when they attempted to attack the men of Jabesh. But Saul never fought Goliath. Teen-aged David, a much smaller Israelite, had to kill Goliath instead.
The Israelite women sang, “Saul has killed his thousands, while David his ten-thousands,” (1Sam.18:7.) Yet Sault built a memorial to himself, not to David, not to God, and not to the nation of Israel (1Sam.15:12.) As Saul denied his fear, his pride grew. Saul never fully admitted he could be a strong victor in battle. As a result, he was not victorious enough. Many times he gave in to his fear and denied his extraordinary potential. He would not wait for Samuel when he was delayed in giving a pre-battle sacrifice. Overcome by his fear, Saul performed that sacrifice (a job only priests were supposed to do) to try to calm his fearful men (1Sam. Chapter 13.)
Another time his son, Jonathan, had to fight when Saul was inactive and quivering while surrounded by Philistines (1Sam. Chapter 14.) And when Jonathan won that battle, Saul claimed it was his work. Saul would not admit to his talent nor use it. Then he denied his weakness (fear) and he became both paranoid and prideful. He thought only of his own desires. Eventually he viciously hunted innocent David and then said, “No one is sorry for me,” (1Sam.22:8) and even blamed innocent David and said that his own son was encouraging David to kill him. Actually Saul was the one who tried to kill Jonathan (1Sam.20:33) and was now trying to kill David.
Denying our strengths and weaknesses is dangerous trap. Samson denied his weakness for sexy women, and this destroyed him. Herod underestimated his ability to rule well, and in his paranoia, he ended up killing innocent family members of his own and also babies in Bethlehem (Matt.2:16.) People get neglected and hurt when we refuse to use our talents, or we deny and try to hide our weaknesses.
What is the antidote? Ask God to reveal your strengths and weaknesses. If your weakness is fear, and it causes you to not use your strengths, you can ask God to give you courage. Whatever weaknesses we have, we can call out to God to help us. We cannot let our current or past weaknesses stop us from using our talents or confessing our weaknesses.
Satan wanted to silence me from sharing God’ hope with hurting gals via this website. Satan reminded me of my past sins and mistakes. Satan reminded me that I believed the lie of the man who was once my husband and the lie he had his lawyer tell me. They told me I was already divorced, and I believed and moved on with my life, eventually meeting and dating another man (who was seductive). But I was not divorced from this spouse who had moved away. He shamed me for not realizing it was a ruse, and for dating another man, even though I broke it off with the other man when this spouse admitted we were not divorced and then demanded that I reconcile with him. Satan also shamed me for trying to reconcile with that man who only kept on telling me lies and abusing me and soon wanted the divorce again anyway (and we did divorce.) Satan reminded me of this blot on my name. But God reminded me that I had confessed my misunderstanding and unintended sin. God forgave me.
But too often our past sins, including those we have confessed, still look like weaknesses in our present day. Instead, we must believe God forgives us, as he forgave me. I urge you to believe he forgives you out of sheer joy. He wants us to be near him, not because we are a burden with our sins, but because our sins burden us and keep us from him. He delights in forgiving us and helping us to not sin anymore. We are not the people we were back then. I trust God’s forgiveness, not Satan’s lie or any man’s accusations. But how easy it could have been for me to cling to my past sins and then feel disqualified to serve God today. So please take all your past sins, and give them to God. If you have already confessed them, consider yourself as redeemed as Rahab, a Philistine former prostitute, is today. Today we see Rahab is redeemed by God, and read that she married a godly Israelite and became one herself. She is in Jesus’ human genealogy.
As for your talents, seek them out, and ask Go to help you rebuke the lie that you would be prideful to use them. And let God know of all the ways where you fall short. Don’t hide your sins or weaknesses from yourself or God. I made a list of some common sins I struggle with, and I pray over them daily. This does not bring me shame but hope. As I admit to God I struggle in these areas (fear, people-pleasing, impatience, etc.) God helps me remember to be vigilant and catch myself when I begin to fall into those sins. I actually catch myself much more quickly and I am now less prone to sinning or at least to staying in these sins. Admitting my weaknesses has helped me better fight them, with God’s help.
And as I have thanked God for my strengths, he has given me creative ideas for using my strengths to help others. I actually feel humbled and full of awe at the idea that God can use me. I feel excited to be used by him, and I resist the sin of pride when I celebrate my strengths and bring them to God to see how he can use them and use me for his glory and for my joy. Yes, I feel joy when I bring God glory. That has always been his intention—to bring us joy. Doing his will is actually a joy, not a burden.
So please find joy in both of these admissions (of your strengths and weaknesses.) I have found joy, and I know God will bring it to you too.
I pray we have blessed you with this post. Please let us know if we encouraged you, and then celebrate your strengths by telling us about them.