For the Girl Who Is Limping Into the New Year

by BETH KNIGHT

December 31, 2024

“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.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

I’m just lucky I’m still standing after last year. This thought came to mind recently as I scrolled through the lofty New Year’s resolutions posted on social media.

With a newly injured hip, emotional pain I’ve been processing, and significant battles I’ve been fighting through in my family life, I am physically, mentally and spiritually limping into the new year.

Maybe in 2024, you fought the fight of your life, got knocked down repeatedly, and refused to quit. But at the starting line of 2025, the resilience fatigue is real. A hard-fought year leaves us wondering, How can I keep going like this?

The Apostle Paul was no stranger to weakness. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-8, he pleaded with the Lord three times to remove a “thorn” Satan used to torment him.

Our English word “thorn” is a translation of the Greek word skolops, which could refer to anything from a splinter to a sharp instrument as big as a tent stake that produces significant pain.

What flesh-piercing stake has God allowed that you’ve begged Him to remove this past year? Is it the “thorn” of sleeplessness, mental or physical health struggles, relational hurt, gut-wrenching grief, or relentless spiritual opposition?

God responded to Paul’s plea with a message of grace, enabling him to approach his weakness with renewed resolve:

“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” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

My fellow limping friend, weakness isn’t evidence that God has left us to suffer or that we’re failing; it’s an invitation to lean more desperately into His grace.

God-ordained weakness always brings with it a divine purpose and provision to carry on. When Christ’s perfect power is graciously placed on imperfect people, He accomplishes abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine.

Thorns can weaken our flesh, but they cannot obliterate our purpose. God uses them for our good, to keep us humbly anchored and dependent on Christ. Weakness is where we find our true strength because it reminds us that apart from Christ, we can do nothing (John 15:5).

God not only grants us the grace to endure difficulties but also to worship our way through them. The circumstances that render us powerless by the world’s standards become a microphone to amplify our praise of the all-powerful God.

So in 2025, let’s reject hiding our struggles, striving harder, or pretending to be stronger than we are. Instead, let’s gladly boast about our weakness, using it as a platform to display Christ’s power to a world in desperate need of hope.

Heavenly Father, I surrender my physical, mental and spiritual limitations into Your gracious and all-powerful hands. This year, may You work unimaginable wonders through my weakness for the glory of Your Name. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

(Devotional for today written by Beth Knight)