Walk in Your Weakness

A couple of months ago I heard the title of this post and at the time it really didn’t make as much of an impact. Yet, in the last few weeks, that phrase has been echoing to me over and over again.
It’s been echoing so much because I’ve been the one saying it. I’ve found myself time and time again telling bits and pieces of how God has made me whole and how He did it by helping me realize that when I bare my true self that as I heal so are others. Before, I really didn’t have an example in the bible to reference, but God is faithful. He reminded me today about the ten lepers. Yes, those ten lepers who simply noticed Jesus’s presence and cried out to Him to have mercy on them. They never asked to be healed. They simply asked for mercy.

And according to that scripture in Luke 17:11-19, Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest. There were no objections to His request. They simply got up and went where he told them to go. As they were walking, I’m sure they were in pain initially. Yet, the bible says that as they walked they were healed. All ten of them were healed, but one noticed the healing before he reached the proposed destination and ran back to Jesus to thank him.

Now I’ve always heard this passage preached in a manner that almost condemns the other nine simply because Jesus acknowledged that there were nine others that did not run back to thank Him as the one had. In fact, the Bible notes that the one who returned was actually a Samaritan. I thought it interesting to know that he was the only one mentioned as a foreigner, yet all ten of them were afflicted with the same disease. Birds of a feather aren’t the only ones who flock together obviously. Regardless, the awesome revelation that I received from this message was that the one who returned was made whole not just healed.

While so many sermons and discussions of this scenario seem to condemn the other nine, it should not be assumed that they were ungrateful for the transformation they received just because their response was not immediate. Maybe it’s because I tend to root for the underdog, but at any rate, I choose to believe that they thanked God when they reached the priests. Sometimes people only realize how far they have come by the acknowledgment of others. So I’m not here to judge the other nine. Nor am I here to place the one leper who returned on a pedestal. The purpose of this post is merely to point out the importance of walking in your weakness. That one leper received his healing while doing what God told him to do just as the others had and while it was his gratitude that opened the door to his wholeness, his personal examination of himself as he walked forward is what I believe allowed him to receive his wholeness.