[Steve Myers] There's an interesting paradox that is set up in the passage found in 2 Corinthians 12:10. Notice what the Apostle Paul writes, he says, "For when I am weak, then I am strong."  And so he starts with this concept of weakness, and yet he says that he can actually turn it around and it can be something that is a strength, that he can be strong. And it seems to go against everything that we humanly think about because we think about personal courage as being a strength that we all need to have, that in human strength we can find security, and we can find happiness. And we think without those things in our life we're going to fail. And yet Paul says just the opposite because when we have personal courage, when we have personal strength, what does that do?

Well, it seems to help us to rely on ourselves, and so we look to self-sufficiency in our lives rather than what Paul's talking about here looking to God and being God-dependent.

We have a great example in the Bible. I think all of us are familiar with the story of Samson. Remember the story of Samson and his great strength? He was amazingly strong. He did phenomenal things. And yet what did that self-reliance lead to in his life? Well, it led to his destruction. And so just human strength on its own, well it can benefit for a while, but in the end it's not where we want to be. It's not going to pay off.

And so what Paul's talking about here, when we're not reliant on our own strength, but when we are reliant on God, when we see our human tendencies as something that's not going to get us through, if we begin to realize that we're weak in our own might and our own power and we realize that of ourselves we really cannot do anything that is good and spiritual and lasting. When we come to that point in our lives and we realize we need God, Paul says then we're strong in the might and power of God. Then we realize that our human strength fails us, but we can be powerful when it comes to our strength and reliance on God because He's going to give us strength. He's going to give us not our strength, but His strength and His courage and His encouragement.

And so when we look at these kinds of things, it should help us to remember what it says in 2 Corinthians 12:10, when we are weak as far as our own vision of our human strength, then we need to remember to rely on God because enduring strength comes from God alone. So let's learn to be that much more God-dependent in all of our lives.

That's BT Daily. We'll see you next time.