"My power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9)

We all want to receive God's grace, but no one wants to be in a position where they need it. Something in us wants to be strong for God. We yearn to be independent.

But God has set it up so that our weakness activates his power. When you are fresh out of options and all your safety nets are in tatters, he loves to surprise you.

Another way of putting it is that your achilles heel is the threshold of his grace. He shows up at the point that you've smacked up against your limitations.

This isn't a license to sin or an excuse for inaction. But too many of us feel limited or fenced in by our weaknesses. God wants us to view them differently. As we pray, "God, I know you want this project done, but I don't have the resources," he responds.

Joy Ridderhof, the founder of Gospel Recordings, was a good example of this. Her illness disqualified her from missionary service, but  not from dreaming. She dreamed of bringing the gospel to non-literate cultures through recording technology.

As she traveled the world, it wasn't her connections or organizational skills that made the difference. Ridderhof had little beyond her sense of conviction. Organizationally she seemed in perpetual disarray. But as she launched out in faith by starting Gospel Recordings, God backed her up time and time again, miraculously providing her with the contacts she needed .

A more recent illustration of the principle is the story of Rick Hoyt, who, despite his disability and with the help of his 58 year-old father Dick, competed in the triathlon competition. I found the video below about it deeply moving.

If God has put a dream on your heart, he's not looking for you to gather everything you need before you start. He's just looking for a "Yes" in your spirit and a prayer inviting him to meet you at your point of weakness.

"God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." (1 Corinthians 1:27)