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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Most advice about weakness tells you to fix it, hide it, or push through it. This verse does something stranger — it says power shows up most clearly right where the weakness is, not after it's gone.
That's a hard thing to believe if you've spent your life thinking you need to be strong enough, put-together enough, before you're worth showing up for. Paul isn't describing a theory here; he's describing an answer he got after begging God to remove something he couldn't fix on his own. The answer wasn't "I'll take it away." It was "my strength is enough, and it works best exactly where yours runs out."
You don't need to arrive polished for that offer to apply to you. If anything, the parts of your life you'd rather not mention out loud might be exactly where this claim is asking to be tested.
If you've always assumed God only has room for people who have it together, this verse is worth a second, closer look.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.