Weak Hands and Feeble Knees

Bad things happen to good people and how we handle those "things" usually determine our eternal destinies. God is not angry with us when He allows certain things to happen. We are His children and whatever happens is more than just chance - it's a divine plan to make us more like His Son, Jesus Christ

 

By Lisa McDonald

 

Hebrews 12:11-12 - For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness - in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God. So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and dropping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees.

 

Isaiah 35:3-4 - Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble and tottering knees. Say to those who are of a fearful and hasty heart, Be strong and fear not! Behold your God will come with vengeance; with the recompense of God He will come and save you.

 

Have you ever wondered why “bad things” happen to “good” people? Well, I know this isn’t a news flash to any of us but “bad things” also happen to “saved” people. People who are saved, who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation and are living for His glory, still live in a fallen  world where we all experience difficult situations. These can be as small as a hang nail or paper cut on up to a grander scale such as a loss of a job or death of a family member. The word “bad” is a relative term. What is difficult to me may not mean as much to you, but everyone can agree on one thing -  the more “bad” you get, the weaker you may feel.

 

Someone gave me some advice during a hard time in my life. They said that I must be doing what God wants me to do or Satan wouldn’t be attacking me in such a violent way. I believe this statement is true, but we too have to understand that everything that happens to us MUST flow through God’s hands. Deut 3:8 says that God humbled his people. Heb. 12:11 says that God disciplines. Does this mean that God is allowing Satan to attack us or is God disciplining us Himself? That may be a subject for theologians to ponder, but the real question is such….when these times affect us when we are so tired and exhausted, weak and feeble from the “bad things”, what do we do? Does it mean I am less of a Christian when these things come my way? What does it say about my faith when these things happen to me? Will I ever be strong again and if, then how?

 

A walk down the Bible Hall of Fame will help us to see some mighty men and women of the faith who were also weak at times. They were followers of God, most of them in specific ministries, but had their moments of fleshly weaknesses. Sometimes what makes us weak may be the outside attacks we receive, but they could also be from internal attacks as well. We are our own worst enemy. When we became children of God, all of our fleshly desires and thoughts did not vanish away (even though it would have made our lives much more simpler.) That is why the Word says we are to go from “faith to faith’.

 

Let’s take a look:

 

 

All these people were trying to serve God (“saved” people lets say) yet had a bad thing happen to them (either due to a weakness inside or from an outward attack.)

 

A problem I have had in the past is legalism. I would try my best to adhere to what God wanted me to do (pray, fast, tithe, witness, etc.) but when something bad happened to me I felt that God was not happy with my efforts and that I MUST HAVE done something wrong, or not in the proper order, or not at all. My past impression of God as a heavenly judge over our behavior is basically correct, but slightly warped. God IS a judge over our behavior and He does discipline us to get us back on track, but He isn’t sitting in heaven watching us with anticipation, hoping we mess up just to punish us. His love is so overwhelming that we, the inhabitants of this world, could never grasp it’s intensity. Just as you love your children enough to punish them for playing with matches or walking in front of a car, God loves us even more. He knows that if we pray (showing our love for Him) He will be able to give us the answer we have been waiting on so He lovingly corrects us to the point where we know He wants us to pray. If at that point we do not listen, then He uses different maybe even more extreme measures to get our attention.

 

Another area where I continue to work toward victory is fear and worry. Legalism plays a part in this also…. let me explain. For instance, let’s say I got a speeding ticket. The legalism part of me may say, “Well, I know God doesn’t want me to speed so this is what I get. He is unhappy with me for disobeying Him so my punishment is paying this ticket.” So I continue on, depressed that I have disappointed by Heavenly Father; mad at myself because I know I may have a problem with speeding but can’t seem to conquer it; committing myself to doing more for God to get on “His good side” again.

 

Worry and fear come in when I start thinking about where I am going to get the extra money to pay for the ticket, worry about my driving record (how will this affect my insurance), and worry over how to tell my husband. My human side will try to rationalize “why” I was speeding (providing a reasonable explanation for the infraction) because the flesh wants to be comfortable and wants to know it is always right.

 

When I analyze the problem in this way, it seems irrational and the proper response seems apparent. But in reality, it is all too easy to go the route I have just described. When we continue with fear, worry, depression, or routine fundamentals due to legalism, we can get tired and weak because we start to wonder why we even try. That is why it is so important to train our minds not to fear, but to concentrate on the fact that God has more strength than I could ever use and He wants to supply me with it if I will only ask. God has more than enough peace to spread around to those who fear, if we would only humble ourselves and admit our apprehension. God has a plan for our lives and specifics on how He wants us to maintain our Christian walk (Bible study, prayer, tithing, etc.) without us having to plan it ourselves and question our ability. Just know that our ability is less than adequate already and that we can never be perfect. After we concrete that in our minds, the rest seems a little easier. (But it doesn’t give us a license not to try, though.)

 

Going back to our scriptures, what does God say about our weakness: In Hebrews 12 it says we are to, “brace up, reinvigorate and to set right” our weak and drooping hands and to ‘strengthen” our knees. Isaiah says for us to “strengthen” our hands and to “make firm” our knees. To me, God is saying that He wants our hands to be ready to work again and that our knees need to be strong to allow us to stand in any situation.

           

A side note: It makes sense to me that if God is telling us to reinvigorate ourselves, it doesn’t sound like He wants us to wallow or have pity parties about what is going on and to stay in this situation indefinitely. (Ouch! Don’t worry, that is another article for another time.)

 

        Well, if we do this for God, what are the benefits? The Bible is full of benefits of why we should serve God, but let’s just look at these two scriptures as a start.

  1. After discipline there will come a peaceable fruit of righteousness

  2. God will be our vengeance  With the recompense of God He will come and save you.

 

        Think about those things a moment. If we do things, “God’s way”, we will have peace, He will take care of those who harm us and He will save us from the “bad things” that happen. Isn’t that great? We don’t have to be agitated and nervous to the point of exhaustion. We don’t have to plan our revenge on those who are causing us grief because if we are righteous in our dealings, God will deal with our adversaries. And, praise the Lord, we will be saved because God will come to us! Read that again, God will come to us and save us. God isn’t waiting for us to be the perfect Christian or to pray so many hours or give so much money for Him to help us. He doesn’t have a scratch pad with a good side and bad side and determines when He intervenes due to how many marks on each side. God will come to us and save us. BUT, we have to do our part by strengthening our limbs and setting right our stance. We can be strong and victorious, no matter our circumstance or situation, due to God’s power that lives within us.

 

By concentrating on His power over our weaknesses, we will grow stronger every day.