Day 37

In weakness

To start

Sit quietly for one minute or more. Let the unimportant things slip off your shoulders.

Pray

Yahweh, as we read this week, give us the ability to abide in Your Word. Empower us to look until we’re tired of looking, to stay with the text and give it space to work in us. Open our eyes. Soften our hearts. Give us strength to behold You.

Copy

This week we’re reading Hebrews 11:32-40. Grab a couple index cards and copy the text. Don’t forget to carry the cards around with you this week.

Hebrews 11:32-40

³²And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, ³³ who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. ³⁶ Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned,^[l] they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. ³⁸ The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.

³⁹ All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.

Read

Meditate on Hebrews 11:32-34.

As you read, consider…

• Imagine the author writing, “And what more can I say? Time is too short…” What expression is on his face? What’s his posture? What does this choice of words communicate?

  • Have you ever said, “What more can I say?” and then proceeded to keep saying things? What were you talking about? Why did you get so carried away?

• Jot down one thing you know about each person listed here (Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel). If you don’t know anything about one of the names, give it a search in your Bible app.

• Consider the list of acts of faith. Pick two or three that stand out to you. Why does it take faith to do these things? In what way does faith provide an engine for accomplishing that act?

• Which act of faith on the list is the coolest? Which one do you wish God would call you to live out? Which one is the most terrifying?

Hebrews 11:32-34 (CSB)

And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, ³³ who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.

Hebrews 11:32-34 (RSV)

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Hebrews 11:32-34 (The Voice)

I could speak more of faith; I could talk until time itself ran out. If I continued, I could speak of the examples of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, of David and Samuel and all the prophets. ³³ I could give accounts of people alive with faith who conquered kingdoms, brought justice, obtained promises, and closed the mouths of hungry lions. ³⁴ I could tell you how people of faith doused raging fires, escaped the edge of the sword, made the weak strong, and—stoking great valor among the champions of God—sent opposing armies into panicked flight.

From JL

This morning I find myself empathizing with the Hebrews writer—time is too short. The list is too long. Surely we could sit here learning from these stories of faith for the rest of our lives.

We could, and we will.

But for now…

What can we get our heads around today? What little torch can we hold to light the way?

I am not a king or a warrior, so the stories of kingdoms conquered and foreign armies put to flight don’t resonate. They’re inspiring, definitely, but they seem far away. Should I be called to raise an army, I hope I’d say yes. Faith enables that kind of thing. But it’s unlikely that’s the journey God has for me (or us).

There is an act of faith in today’s list that’s more common—not less supernatural just more frequent in occurrence. I’ve met many people who’ve lived it.

I’ve lived it.

“Who by faith […] gained strength in weakness…”

If you were to ask 10-year-old Jennifer Mays what her greatest weakness was she’d probably tell you something like, “I don’t have many friends.” She’d say the same thing at 18. In college she’d feel (for a moment) like maybe she did have friends, but then she’d leave college (Jennifer Gerhardt now) and her friendships would wither, and she’d realize her real weakness wasn’t not having many friends, it was not knowing how to love people well enough to make and keep friends.

If “friends” was a subject in school, she would have (I would have) failed.

I’m 45 now, and 45-year-old Jennifer Gerhardt would still say friendship isn’t her best subject. I’m not a natural. I struggle to keep up. I disappoint friends often. I’m awkward and blunt.

But.

By faith, I have friends. A miraculous catch of friends. Friends I didn’t earn. Friends I don’t deserve. I have city friends and country friends, yankee friends and southern friends. I have friends who hike and friends who read and friends who’ve watched every episode of The Bachelor and friends with moral opposition to The Bachelor.

I have friends on every continent but one. This fall I’m planning a trip with friends from Arkansas to go see friends in South Africa.

I have been welcomed into so many friends’ homes, homes that have become second homes. I’ve been in several friends’ parents’ homes.

I’ve buried friends. I’ve held friends’ newborn babies. I have danced and toasted and cried at dozens of weddings. I’ve prayed for jobs and healing, for struggling kids and waning faith.

When my daughter got pneumonia in bootcamp, I sent a text to thirty close friends asking for prayer.

I don’t have all of these friends because I took a course in friendship. I didn’t make goals and get good at it.

I think what I did (“did” is a strong word) was to simply offer up my weakness and believe that God could give me the friends I couldn’t earn.

And He did. There is no doubt I am strong in friends, but don’t ask me for advice. I have been made strong in my weakness.

This is just one story of gaining strength in weakness. I have dozens.

I have been sick and gained strength. I have grieved and gained strength. I have looked at my husband knowing he and I are woefully mismatched in some category only to watch God transform our combined weakness into strength.

Faith looks at weakness and sees not lack but opportunity. Faith sees weakness and says, “God can do something with this.”

I am learning through experience.

Pray

Ask God to show you where you’re weak. Offer up your weakness by faith. Expect Him to move.

Resources

Yet again we find unexpected people on this list of the faithful (particularly Samson and Jephthah). If you’d like to spend time with the nuance of their stories, consider the Holy Ghost Stories episodes for each:

• The Balm, the Negotiator, and the Casualty (Jephthah)

• The Source and the Supernova (One of three Samson episodes)

In the Comments

Tell a story about a time when, by faith, you “won strength out of weakness.”

Godspeed,

JL