Monday is a tough day for most pastors. Sunday’s gone yet coming again at full speed and with a vengeance. Monday is the day the devil visits to inform us of what a rotten job we did the day before. Most of us wake up worn out with brains of mush—only to hear the words we fear the most…failure. Failure is one of the devil’s favorite intimidation tactics.
No one wants to fail, but we all fall short of perfection. Our best is often marked with imperfections and shortcomings. We don’t always get it right. We say one thing and mean something else or we do one thing having meant to do something totally different. Our actions often fall short of our words. No one else may see them, but we do and the sight of those shortcomings bother most of us deep down where it hurts the most. We are not what we appear, but neither is anyone else and our Adversary knows it all too well.
So Monday is the day we fret and critique and call it quits sometimes all in a single moment. It’s the day we admit we are not what everyone thinks much less says. We do not float above the ground or glow like a holy light bulb. We are mortal—flawed human beings searching for meaning and acceptance in a world where influence and power are the measure of ones worth.
Thankfully God does not measure any person’s worth that way. No—He calls the unworthy to accomplish the impossible by means of the supernatural. He knows we are incapable and insufficient within ourselves. That’s why He gave us the Holy Spirit. He alone brings ability, capability, and the power to accomplish the impossible task God has called us to. You can be sure that the enemy will neglect this particular topic if you have a conversation with him on a Monday or any other day for that matter.
Monday is a day to reflect not on what you or I did Sunday, but what God did. God always works through our failures and our complete inability to be all we want to be. If we are secure enough in our relationship to the Father we know and can appreciate the biblical fact that power is perfected in weakness. Once we acknowledge and come to appreciate this instead of struggle against it, the power of God comes to dwell in each of us in a far greater way.
Sunday is coming. Get ready. Pray and prepare. But step into that classroom or pulpit and be who you are. Leave that false persona behind—most people know it’s fake anyway. Allow the Lord to use your weaknesses to reveal His strength. In fact, if we really want to model the greatest Christian who ever lived (the apostle Paul) we would boast not in our accomplishments of human strength but in the failure of our human weakness—for when we are weak we are really strong.