God is made perfect in my weaknesses. This has been proven true in my life, over and over. It is proven when I am at a loss for words and Scripture gives my heart a voice, when I am terrified and God makes me brave, when I am sick and God heals me, when I’ve thought there was no way and God made a way. Too many times to write God has proven the following words true:

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. -2 Corinthians 12:9

As I’ve gotten older God has persistently shown me new ways to interpret Scriptures that I have written on my heart.  When I love people I want to offer solutions to their problems.  I want to come up with the perfect plan for their lives, just like I’m always scrambling to come up with a game plan for my own life.  I want God to use me to better their lives, which I believe is often the intent with Godly friendships.  I look to my own wisdom and earthly relationships instead of turning to these Scriptures.

An example of God redeeming this can be found in the following relationship.  I have a very, very close friend and we’ve always gone above and beyond for each other (still do).  If she had a problem, you could count on me to be doing my best to fix it.  She needed a job? I would be hunting on job boards.  A boy didn’t like her back?  I would be coming up with a list of all the reasons he was so totally wrong not to return her affections.  Was she stressed about an exam?  I would be her new study buddy.  She did the same for me.  We had each other’s backs.  Until she had a problem I couldn’t fix.

Someone in her family had hurt her feelings repeatedly, and they had gone and done it again, and she turned to me for consolation.  This was very hard because we were far apart—literally separated by distance and time zones, and she couldn’t get a hold of me right away.  When she finally did reach me, I didn’t have the right words—I tried, but I just wasn’t comforting her the way she needed.  I could tell she was hurting and there was nothing I could do to make it better.   I was not the perfect friend; I was weak. So she turned to God - instead of letting our human reflex to turn to our human relationships for comfort and guidance kick in.

This took her immeasurably deeper in her faith.  Later, she told me how this was actually a season in her life where God had been showing her to stop turning to her friends and other people before turning to Him, and our incident was just another confirmation of this.  God was made perfect in my weakness; even outside my own relationship with Him.  He wasn’t just made perfect in my weakness in my very own story, but in other people’s stories, too.  This caused me to do a double take in my own life.

Every time someone has let me down or disappointed me because I went to them with needs only God could meet, I learned the important lesson to turn to God first instead.  Whether it was someone unintentionally disappointing me or purposely hurting me - their weakness was a roadmap for me to go to the true source of strength.  It’s a two-way street. God is made perfect in weakness in our own lives and also in times of weakness in other’s lives.  When our human strength isn’t strong enough to hold someone up, we can be a sign pointing to the true source.  When we are weak, He is strong…every single time.

God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. -Psalm 46:1 (NLT)