11/14/17 A KEY TO SUCCESS

11/14/17 A KEY TO SUCCESS

Dealing with weaknesses is vital to succeeding, regardless of your strengths. 

DEALING WITH WEAKNESSES
This is true in the natural realm as well as the spiritual realm.

Spiritually we are totally unable to save ourselves (therefore we are spiritual failures) because of inherent sin (which is more than just weakness, but it is the ultimate and absolute weakness that we must deal with). The way we deal with the weakness of sin and separation from God is by trusting (believing, following, obeying) Christ, as He enables us.

In the natural realm, as believers and non believers, God has given us specific strengths. Our personal strengths may be physical, athletic, artistic, intellectual, organizational, personality, intuitiveness, sensitivity, decisiveness, courage. These strengths can be improved upon and others can be added through personal pursuit and discipline, and especially through submissive dependence on God.

The areas of our lives, in which we are not endowed with strengths, are our areas of weakness. In fact, misunderstanding our strengths or depending on our strengths (rather than God) can blind us to our weaknesses or intensify our weaknesses. Pride is the corrupter and destroyer of success.

People (saved or unsaved) who have succeeded in various pursuits are usually people who recognize their own strengths and weaknesses. They feed their strengths and they deal with their weaknesses. Dealing with weaknesses requires honest evaluation, acceptance of reality, discipline to overcome, dedication to take the hard steps of correction, dependence on other people.
There are many people with great strengths who have failed, while others with lesser strengths have succeeded because they dealt with their weaknesses.

Though I have separated the spiritual from the natural in this article, the principles are basically applicable to both realms. Sadly, when a person succumbs to failure in the natural, they also fail in the spiritual. However, the person who succeeds too often thinks that he has succeeded without God and he/she too will fail in the spiritual realm. Still, if a person recognizes his weaknesses and deals with his weaknesses in the natural realm, he/she is more likely to succeed in the spiritual realm than the person who surrenders to failure..