“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. (Revelation 3:21) This extract is part of the concluding remarks of Jesus’ letter to the church in Laodicea, the lukewarm church. Remember that there is always something up for grabs for anyone who overcomes.
What to do to overcome our weaknesses?
For the most part, weaknesses are inherent; weaknesses are already part of you; they are the flaws in your character right from the moment of your birth and you happen to spend a great deal of your life with them. However, to some extent, continuous exposure to certain circumstances of life can induce certain weaknesses in us too. Having weaknesses is not what matters here, since it is no news to have weaknesses; weaknesses are common to us as human beings. What really matters is ‘checking your weaknesses’ or ‘dealing with your weaknesses’ or ‘overcome your weaknesses’ – that is what God expects from us.
1. Identify your weakness
It is said that a problem defined is half-solved. In the same vein, knowing what your weaknesses are is the first most important step in overcoming it. You should be honest to yourself; take a deep look into your life, and identify your weaknesses. In the quest to know what your weaknesses are, look deep into your life, you should be able to pinpoint the things that entice you most into sin; you should be able to pinpoint the sort of temptation you cannot resist or the sort of temptation you easily fall into almost every time it comes your way; this is how you easily find your weaknesses.
2. Overcome weakness by the word of God
The Lord Jesus Christ once taught, saying, “19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’” (Matthew 15:19-20).
The heart of man, your heart, is the center of your character. All the good and the bad deeds you do come from your heart. In other words, your heart influences your actions and deeds, good or bad; hence that is where your weaknesses are hidden – those weaknesses that make you sin or disobey God. The Psalmist saw or understood a way by which these weaknesses in our character or in our heart can be suppressed or overcome so that we may avoid sinning; so he said,
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. 10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. 11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:9-11)
Great! But how is Psalm 119:11 fulfilled in one’s live? When you fervently embrace the word of God with you heart, then you become the battleground of two opposing forces; that is, the word of God which leads to obedience and your weaknesses which lead to disobedience to God.
Now the person who is born of God, I mean the Christian, is inclined, by the help of the Holy Spirit, to choose the path of obedience taught by the word of God and having done that, it is said that he has overcome his weakness to the glory of God. Naturally, just as light always triumphs over darkness, so shall the word of God, which is light, triumph over your weakness, the dark part of you.
You can be sure that if you open up your heart to the word of God, accept it, love it and or embrace it, you will suppress, cut off or overcome your weaknesses for the word of God is a panacea for all the weaknesses of man because there are Bible teachings to deal with every kind of weakness in mankind.
The word of God equips the Christian to overcome his weakness; but that only happens when the Christian holds fast to the word in his heart, making it his rule of life and conduct.
3. Overcome weakness by Prayer
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8).
In some instances, certain weaknesses are not light issues to deal with, for they have been part of the person’s character almost for a lifetime. Any attempt to part with them may prove difficult; you may fall or fail several times. The Scripture Matthew 7:7-8 is our confidence to approach Jesus Christ Himself for help to overcome our weaknesses.
Using Acts 12 as an example, the early Christians, having been persecuted and warned not to preach in Jesus’ name and knowing in themselves that they have been weakened and have lost the courage to preach, they went to God in prayer, asking for nothing but boldness to overcome the weakness induced by the threats. And God met their need, giving them boldness. Then they went out to preach.
In the same way, where we have difficulties dealing with our weaknesses, we should go to God in prayer, asking for help to overcome them, and He will answer our prayers. The psalmist said,
Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD! (Psalm 27:14)
Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD. (Psalm 31:24)
Do not forget that the heart is the center of your character. When God strengths your heart, it translates to having a strong willpower to overcome your weaknesses. Where the going gets tough, you really have to pray for Divine strength in order to overcome your weaknesses of short-temperedness, greed, pride, laziness, cowardness, womanizing, etc.
4. Overcome weakness by resilience.
In a bid to follow Jesus, we struggle. Some of the struggles have to do with confronting ourselves; that is to say, confronting our weaknesses. Practically, the endeavor to overcome one’s weakness has its own ups and downs; that is to say, in the course of overcoming your weakness, sometimes, you fall or fail. Now if it happens that you fall or fail at some point, do not give in. Do not continue in failure. Wake up and recover fast! That is, repent and fight on to triumph. Be resilient! For that is the mark of a true Christian. It is written –
for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity. (Proverbs 24:16)
Quite a number of great men of God of old have shared in this verse of Scripture; though they fell, due to their weaknesses and sheer disobedience, they did not continue in disobedience. They woke up; they repented, some of them, in tears and in prayer and confession; and they continued in faith and in obedience to God’s word and they became success stories. Examples are:
|
What they did wrong |
Their Resilience | |
| Moses | He offended God by striking the rock – Numbers 12:1–13 | However, Moses continued in faith and service to God. Heb 3:2, Heb 3:5 |
| David | Adultery with Bathsheba – 2 Samuel 11:1-5. He took a census – 2 Samuel 24:1-10 | He repented: 2 Samuel 12:13 2 Samuel 24:10 |
| Samson | His involvement with Delilah – Judges 16:4 He revealed his secret – Judges 16:17 | Repented and prayed: Judges 16:28 |
| Jonah | He refused to speak the word of God to Nineveh – Jonah 1:1-17 | Repented and prayed: Jonah 2:1-10 |
| Peter | Denied Jesus three times. Matthew 26:69-75 and Luke 22:54-62 | Repented and prayed in tears: Luke 22:62 and Matthew 26:75 |
| The disciples of Jesus | They deserted Jesus and fled at the time He was arrested. – Mark 14:50 | However, they reunited with Jesus and continued in faith and obedience to Him for life. |
Christians of today should be just as resilient as those of old – like Peter, Moses, etc. And always bear in mind that you should not remain or continue to sin, for it is written –
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. (1 John 3:9 NIV)
5. Overcome weakness by fellowshipping with other Christians.
Christianity is not meant to be a lonely affair. Jesus spent some time in prayer to ask for unity and fellowship among His disciples (John 17:11, John 21-22), expecting that no disciple or Christian should be lonesome and secluded. For a Christian may not successfully follow Jesus for life if he is isolated; you really need to belong to the family of Christians, which is the church. These verses of Scripture tell you why:
- Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrew 10:25 NIV)
- 12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrew 3:12-13)
- Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. (1Thessalonians 5:11)
- Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:16)
- And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. (1 Thessalonians 5:14 NIV)
- In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” (Acts 20:35 NIV)
How can Christians do ‘exhort one another daily’ and ‘comfort each other and edify one another’ and ‘teaching and admonishing one another’ and ‘warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak’ if they do not fellowship together. Every Christian has responsibilities to fulfill in the life of his fellow Christian so that both of them can overcome challenges. Christians ought to be each other’s keeper. Especially, the strong Christians are supposed to help the weak ones who are struggling with weaknesses to stand by providing them with the services of exhorting, comforting, edifying, teaching, encouraging and admonishing. The family of Christians will prompt and correct you when you are walking away from the path of holiness.
The Bible says, ‘Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise (Proverbs 13:20)’. In the same way, if a Christian has other Christians as his companions, he surrounds himself with a host of holy men and women whose exemplary lives will inspire or challenge him to lead a holy life to overcome his weakness. That Christian will draw on the wealth of inspiration from his fellow Christians, especially the strong ones, to mend the faults in his own life. On the whole, the family of Christians is going to be a check on him, making sure that he is on the right path.
6. Overcome weakness by exercising a strong willpower.
Jesus, our Lord and Master, taught Christians what to do about their weaknesses. Let take a look at it. He said –
29 “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 “And if your right hand causes you to sin; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:29-30)
Jesus makes it clear to Christians that they should get rid of any sin causing factor in their life, and among such factors is weakness. In His teachings, He made it sound like Christians have what it takes, the power, to do ‘pluck it out and cast it from you’ and ‘cut it off and cast it from you’. Indeed, Jesus cannot be wrong; for He Himself knows how well He has sanctified Christians and how richly He has endowed them with spiritual blessings. Among the endowments Christians receive from God are the Holy Spirit and self-control. It is written,
For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us timid; instead, his Spirit fills us with power, love, and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7) – Good News Translation
Everyone who comes to follow Jesus freely and immediately receives the Holy Spirit and self-control from God as part of his salvation. Having said, ‘pluck it out and cast it from you’ and ‘cut it off and cast it from you’, Jesus is actually commanding Christians to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit and self-control to overcome their weaknesses so that they will not live in habitual sins and go to hell.
This Scripture, 2 Timothy 1:7, leaves Christians with no excuse whatsoever. Having been abundantly endowed with the Holy Spirit who inspires self-control, the Christian has no excuse but to exercise a strong will not to succumb to his weaknesses again. In other words, the Christian should make a decision, supported by a strong will, to overcome his weakness, period.
No matter what God has done behind the scene to help us, we, Christians, have to finally decide whether to become victorious Christians who have triumphed over their weaknesses or failures and apostates like Judas Iscariot. Consequently, willpower is one of the major factors that differentiate the victorious Christian from those who fail and fall away.
Conclusion
We really need to apply willpower, prayer, resilience, and fellowshipping to continuously walk in victory over our weaknesses. Always remember that overcoming your weakness is not an option, it is a necessary service you should render to yourself; salvation calls for it.
Food for thought
- How has every one of these means of overcoming weakness helped you to overcome your weakness?
- Can one lead an isolated Christian life and still overcome his weakness successfully?
- Can a Christian have unbelievers for his companions and still succeed in overcoming his weakness?
- In what ways can you contribute to helping other Christians overcome their weakness?
- Who are your close friends? Have they what it takes to help you overcome your weakness? Or can they help you to lead a victorious Christian life?