Once a month, I gather with other Central Peninsula pastors for prayer and encouragement. Today as we were meeting Leighton Sheley the pastor of Church of the Highlands was encouraging us to see God’s goodness even in the challenges. After mentioning that we are in the least churched area of the United States, he mentioned that we are not only on the frontlines, but even behind enemy lines. He said God only sends his best behind enemy lines. I spoke up, “uh oh! If we are God’s best, then we are really in trouble.” I was making a joke, but a pastor next to me softly encouraged me, “God uses the weak things of this world.”

It is easy to look at our problems and become overwhelmed. We assess the challenges and quickly realize that we do not have the resources in our own strength for the task at hand. Whether in our personal lives or in our church ministries, we eventually come to the end or our own ability. In those times we are at a crossroads. Will we give in to discouragement or will we trust the Lord? Paul understood this natural dilemma. That is why he wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:1:

“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

When we come to the end of ourselves, we are forced to lean on God’s mercy and recognize our lives and ministries are from him. And the only thing that effect real, lasting, life transformation is the Word of God plainly taught and faithfully lived. Paul understood that his weakness was really a superpower—not a superpower from within, but a superpower from God. He knew and we need to know that our lives are like fragile clay pots, but clay pots that hold the most valuable treasure in the world. Be encouraged by Paul’s words:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

God is at work. God is saving. God bringing life. God is transforming lives. And the good news is the flip side of the bad news. You can’t do it in your own strength, but God can do it through your weakness.