{"id":7218,"date":"2021-08-27T21:23:39","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T11:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7218"},"modified":"2021-08-27T21:39:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T11:39:53","slug":"his-strength-in-my-weakness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/his-strength-in-my-weakness\/","title":{"rendered":"His Strength in my Weakness"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

His Strength in my Weakness <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from a sermon<\/a> by HH Pope Shenouda III<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Our God is the God of the weak. The weak have a special importance\nin the eyes of our Lord. The weak are given special privileges that the strong\nwould not get, for very simple reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God was with Jacob, the weaker brother, of Esau, known for\nhis strength. Jacob was frightened of his brother, Esau. When it came time for\nhim to return home, he was fearful to the point of death from his brother. He\nwas scared for not only his life, but the lives of his wife and children, too.\nGod stood by Jacob and not the powerful Esau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example is the Pharisee and the tax collector that both\nstood in the Temple. The Pharisee was proud of his power and prestige. It was\nspiritual strength that he relied on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God, I thank You that I am not like other men\u2014extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess<\/em><\/p>Luke 18:11-12<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He trusted in his own power, and for that reason, his prayers\nwere not received. He depended on his power, and he was proud of his power,\neven in front of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the tax collector, who was weak and confessed of his\nweakness. He felt the weight of his weakness and sin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, \u2018God, be merciful to me a sinner!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>Luke 18:13<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The mighty Pharisees and Sadducees quoted Moses\u2019 law when a\ncertain woman was caught in adultery. They told Christ that her punishment must\nbe stoning. They shamed her, but God did not stand by them but the woman, to life\nher up from her weakness. He rescued her from their grasp. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When He revealed all their sins, He said to her, where are\nyour accusers? Since none remained, He said to her, \u201cNeither do I condemn\nyou; go and sin no more<\/em>.\u201d Why did He do this? He saw that she was weak, she\nwas sick, she was tired, she was ashamed, and that she had been wronged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She did not ask for God\u2019s protection, or His help, or mercy,\nor even protection. She did not call on God. Don\u2019t think that God waits to be\nasked. God doesn\u2019t answer what we ask of Him. He answers in His compassion to\nour feelings when we are put down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God will always protect the weak, even before they ask. He will always protect the poor and needy. If you stand strong in front of yourself, in front of others, then God can never stand with you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God stood with Saint Anthony, the father of the monks. He would\nsay to the demons, \u201cWhy are you sending your most powerful to fight someone so\nweak?\u201d <\/em>God stood by St Anthony and saved him from all the demons and their devices.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how God has always been. God chose Moses who had a\nstutter and was afraid to speak before Pharaoh. Yet God chose this weak man to\nspeak on His behalf. Moses could voice God\u2019s command to His people without any of\nhis personal opinions. He was a representative of the house of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a person trusts in their own strength, they will also\ngive credit to themselves. God seeks the heart of the one that attributes all\ntheir strength to God. Everything is for the glory of God\u2019s Holy Name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nThis is why God chooses the weak. God chose Isaiah the Prophet and appeared to\nhim with the holy Seraphim (Isaiah 8). He was a man that knew his weakness. In\nthe presence of the Lord, Isaiah says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWoe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He did not take pride in himself, but gives glory to God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When David felt weak, God lifted him up. When David felt his own power,\nGod stood against him. He punished him and said that he could not build the\ntemple because his hands were unclean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God does not like to depend on people who think they are powerful.\nThinking of one\u2019s self as powerful goes against God\u2019s own nature that is full of\nhumility. When we empty ourselves, just as Christ emptied Himself on the Cross for\nthe sake of humanity, then God will be our source of strength. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glory be to God, Amen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His Strength in my Weakness Translated from a sermon by HH Pope Shenouda III Our God is the God of the weak. The weak have a special importance in the eyes of our Lord. The weak are given special privileges that the strong would not get, for very simple reasons. God was with Jacob, the … Continue reading “His Strength in my Weakness”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7218"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7221,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218\/revisions\/7221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}