Showing Weakness (Lev 4 & James 5:16)

I was reading today in Leviticus 4 about sin offerings, and when I hit verse 22 where it talks about a leader sinning something struck me: the leader would have to go to the temple to offer the sacrifice, thus proclaiming his guilt. It reminded me of James 5:16 as well:

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed…

Confessing our sins to one another… again, proclaims our guilt. God wired a system to help us walk in a path of humility. Yet even so, too often we opt for pride and the APPEARANCE of good rather than acknowledging the truth of a situation. Why? Well for one thing, we don’t like showing weakness.

A couple times today I showed weakness in front of others. I must confess it is FAR from my favorite thing! It feels uncomfortable and vulnerable, and it makes me feel kinda dumb. After all, the Lord’s given me a ministry shouldn’t I be “better” than this?!

Yet who has set perfection as a standard? Certainly not God! He knows us far too well. The fact is too often as leaders we don’t want to show our weaknesses because it’s uncomfortable, but by doing that we unintentionally set an expectation that perfection is the goal.

Don’t get me wrong, we are most definitely to be pursuing holiness (Hebrews 12:14), but thus far only Jesus has actually attained it!

Rather than placating our pride by falsely seeming perfect, it would be a far better example for others to see how we struggle to correct our weaknesses, how we repent when we sin, how we’re willing to admit we have blown it, missed God, or flat out disobeyed… and be corrected!

So I encourage you today, don’t try to seem perfect. Confess your sin to someone. Go allow yourself to be weak… because in doing so you make room for Him to be strong. How much better to give honor and praise to Him than to falsely position yourself to receive it instead!

I pray Lord that we would embrace a lifestyle of humility, that we’d be willing to be shown weak that You might be shown strong. Be glorified through our surrendered lives.