According to God we are Strong when we can Help Those who are weaker than us – Helping Ourselves at Their Expense is a Sign of Weakness!

In looking at this subject of being strong, the problem we face is that we tend to look at it from a humanistic view and in so doing, we completely ignore the God-view. That is what puts us in the wrong position. Often, we find that God’s Word clashes with the way we normally think. This is so because we think in a limited scope while God thinks out of an infinite source of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. We all have the impression of ourselves that we are strong and healthy, but we never use our strength and health to the benefit of those who are less fortunate than we are. Paul encourages the believers to “bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

Romans 15:1-2 “Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up.”

Well, there is so much we can all do to help, encourage, assist and be there for those who are infirmed or disable or simply weak or sick. When we live just to please ourselves we sin against God in displaying a selfish attitude and a selfish mindset. Selfishness is not from God. To the contrary, God is always giving off Himself, His love, His peace, His joy, His understanding, and His wisdom. There is nothing that God withholds from those who seek Him diligently. In fact, Scripture says that God rewards such people. By showing the love of God to those who are weaker than ourselves, we show God to them in a very real way. Our acts of kindness may be the very opening that someone is looking for to reconnect with the God of this world. Let that thought resonate within us! We may be the link that brings together a lost soul back to the Living God!

God made man so that man would connect with those around him. Sadly, when Adam sinned the original intent of God was marred, and man began to do what he felt was right. We know that what man thinks as right is far from being right. This is where selfishness, arrogance and pride began to thrive in the lives of men. Greed surfaced and man began to chase after things instead of the One who created the things in life. Immediately, we see that sin caused man to be distracted and disloyal. Instead of serving God and communing with Him in the cool of the day, man now tried to make his own way according to his own understanding. This speaks volumes as to why we are so far distanced from the ways of God – man had lost his way and had no way of coming back to God!

It is only because our strong God reached out and helped us find our way, that we can commune with Him and relate to Him again. We are to now receive this strength from God that brought us out of eternal damnation and use it to reach out to those who are weak. Now the word ‘weak’ might include a huge number of variations, from those who are weak in body due to illnesses, to those who are maimed, and those who are disabled, as well as those who are weak among the believers within the house of God. We are to make time and touch their lives so that they don’t remain in the state that we find them in. We are to be the vehicle that imparts grace to those around us. This grace has been freely given to us and we are to also extend it freely to all those around us in the world today!