We had an awesome study last night. People are getting over their shyness and becoming more familiar with the teleconference format and we had some great sharing. Think of it as Marti and I are a phone call away on Wednesday nights and we’re loving getting to know you; and there’s always room for more. If you want to listen to last night’s recording, dial (218) 237-3850 and use 124393 as your access code and 092811 as the recording number. Our Catch today is taken from our study passage: “Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” (2 Corinthians 3:4-5)

So what are you good at? Where are your strengths? The prevailing thinking along these lines would be that these strengths would be assets. A person with twice the natural resources would be twice as effective. Or so it would seem. When in fact the opposite is the case.

Notice in this verse how far our own adequacy gets us. Nowhere. And yet we are in fact adequate to serve as ministers of a New Covenant. If you live with this verse for a long time, you begin to see what Paul is getting at. He is telling us there is a pathway to adequacy that first runs through our own inadequacy. This is not us drumming up some sort of motivational tool. This is us claiming our own inadequacy that we might step into God’s. We aren’t adequate but we are because God has made us adequate his way, apart from our schemes and manipulations.

So actually we need to beware our own strengths and adequacies lest we boast, by our own strength we got his victory. Our strengths can get in our way. Our weaknesses can lead to his strengths.