"Strong in You" | Behind the Song

"But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." -2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Boasting in my weakness seems to be the opposite of what I'm compelled to do these days. Maybe it’s pursuing a career in the entertainment industry, our social media culture, my own pride or a little bit of all of the above. I don’t want to appear weak because it might cost me an opportunity or invite the judgment of somebody else. However, God doesn’t call us to live in a way that glosses over our insecurities with a false portrayal of our own strength. He calls us to lean into his strength and find our rest and healing in him alone.

On the day that I sat down with my cowriter, Meagan Newell, I felt the weight of my weakness. I was in one of those situations where I looked around at my failed plans and realized that there was simply no way to recover on my own. I had placed my trust solely in my own strength and judgment and ended up in a mess.

However, the story doesn't stop there. Just like in 2 Corinthians, “Strong in You” not only portrays acceptance of our own weakness but it takes us through the journey of celebrating the strength that we find in Christ. When I started writing this song, I realized that the core idea of finding strength in Christ is such a simple truth. However, it’s so often that the simple truths are something I need to be reminded of the most.

What God has to often remind me is that it's okay to admit weakness. In fact, God calls us to delight in the times that are met with hardships, difficulties and persecutions because it is in these moments that we come in direct contact with his strength. We are to celebrate our weakness because that is how we come to know the depths of who God is and how much he has to offer us.

As Meagan and I sat down to create a song that day, we wrote down the ways that God meets us with exactly the opposite of what we’re feeling or experiencing when we face struggles. In our hurting he meets us with hope; in our healing he makes us whole; in our weakness he makes us strong. I sincerely hope that you will take the simple truth of this song with you and allow God to open up the honest places of your heart so he can reveal more of himself today.