“When You Feel Weak,” For the Strength of Youth, Apr. 2023.
When You Feel Weak
How can our weakness be transformed into strength?
Illustrations by Corey Egbert
We all have weaknesses—for example, I sometimes worry about things I can’t control. I also sometimes compare myself to others. How about you? Do you have any weaknesses? Maybe you struggle with fear or temptation. Maybe you have a physical weakness that causes you pain or difficulty. Perhaps your weakness is a struggle to forgive others, or even wanting to be angry with God for things that have happened to you. We all have weaknesses.
In fact, the Apostle Paul had some weaknesses. Paul wrote that to keep himself from becoming proud, the Lord had given him a “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7). We don’t know what it was, but it was some kind of weakness. Paul didn’t just ask the Lord but begged the Lord to take away this weakness. He didn’t beg only one time, either. He begged three times for the Lord to take away his weakness (see 2 Corinthians 12:8).
Maybe you’ve felt the same way. Maybe you’ve begged the Lord many times to take away a certain thorn in your flesh. But the Lord didn’t remove Paul’s weakness. Even though Paul continually pleaded for it to be taken away, the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Think about that statement. Is it really true? Can Christ’s power really compensate for our weakness? After all, He did choose a young man who grew up with a wicked father to become Abraham, the father of many nations. And He chose a prisoner named Joseph to prevent starvation in Egypt and chose another Joseph, this one an unlearned 14-year-old young man, to restore His gospel. He also told Gideon to reduce his army to 300 when Gideon faced a numberless host, and he helped a foreign widow named Ruth start a royal bloodline.
Can Christ’s power really transform our weakness to strength?
Elijah, by himself, was able to triumph over more than 400 of the priests of Baal. When Jeremiah was called by God, Jeremiah said, “I cannot speak: for I am a child” (Jeremiah 1:6). Yet he then served as a prophet for about 40 years. And the Lord worked through a Jewish orphan girl named Esther to save an entire kingdom. In fact, the Lord truly does perform many miracles through our weakness!
Remember the Savior’s words: “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” When you feel weak because of your own thorns in the flesh, remember that God can and will use you, weakness and all, for His purposes.
A friend of mine recently went to the temple. While she waited in the chapel, she noticed an elderly man playing the organ. She was impressed at how well he played—and even more impressed once she noticed that he didn’t have any music. He played multiple songs almost perfectly. She told me, “I later learned this man was blind. He blessed me as I was touched by his life of consecration.”
Jesus Christ’s power is infinitely greater than any weakness you or I might struggle with. Maybe when we feel weak, it’s a sign that Christ’s power will soon be at work in our lives if we invite Him in.
The Savior’s grace, or His enabling power, is a key part of His Atonement. He “helps us to see and to do and to become good in ways that we could never recognize or accomplish with our limited mortal capacity.”1
Through His Atonement, the Savior is there to help us repent of our sins and also to strengthen us when we feel weak. There may be things that you and I honestly can’t do—with our own limited abilities—but with Christ’s enabling power, we can.
The Lord told Moroni: “Thou hast been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father” (Ether 12:37).
Note that the Lord didn’t tell Moroni, “You will be strong in this life.” In Moroni’s case, being made fully strong comes in the next life. As President Nelson has taught, for each of us in mortality, “perfection is pending. It can come in full only after the Resurrection and only through the Lord.”2
After receiving this message from the Lord, Moroni counseled modern readers on how to abide in God’s grace. He said, “I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever” (Ether 12:41).
As we seek Jesus, we will feel His strengthening power help us with the challenges we face. When you feel weak, that could be the Lord’s way of inviting you to draw on His strength and power.