Weakness as an Offering

When you hear the word offering any number of images or associations may flash through your mind:

• an offering plate
• an animal on an altar
• a gift
• appeasement
• guilt

I think the truest depiction of offering comes to us from the magi who came to see the One born King of the Jews: After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)

At its most basic, an offering is a gift.

I believe one reason God allows us to experience weakness is so that we can have a gift to present to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul seems to have viewed his own weakness that way: Therefore I am content with weaknesses… for Christ’s sake.
(2 Corinthians 12:10)

As you know, Paul was troubled with the fact of and the why of his thorn in the flesh. He earnestly sought the Lord to remove it from him. Over time, though, he came not to resent it or even merely accept it, but to see it as something for Christ’s sake. It had become a present. A gift. Something of great cost that he could lay at Christ’s feet. It had become his offering to Christ.

We, too, can choose to welcome an otherwise unwelcome weakness as somethingfor Christ’s sake.  When we resolve to be content with our weakness we allow it to become a beautiful present, a precious gift, a costly offering to the Lord Jesus Christ.

For Christ’s sake,