4 Signs God Wants You Weaker So He Can Bless You

Here are 4 signs God is telling you to be weaker so he can bless you.

1. If You Need True Strength, God Says, “Be Weaker”

Strength is not something we possess. Rather, strength is something we receive.

Without food, your body grows weak. With the right food, your body gets strong. When you are awake, your body is wearing down. When you are asleep, your body recharges. We need outside element we can’t produce ourselves like sunlight, oxygen, water, and so much more. We are not strong by ourselves. We are made strong through rightly receiving what we need.

The same is true when it comes to our spiritual well-being. When we try to do everything on our own, we are actually becoming weaker. But when we surrender to God, we are then made stronger. Notice what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, which states:

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

2. If You Need True Faith, God Says, “Be Weaker”

Faith that actually makes you strong is less about the amount of faith you have and more about the object of your faith. If you put your faith in the wrong thing, that faith will make you weaker. Sometimes we have to become weaker in the world’s eyes, we need to stop trusting in worldly solutions, and we need to start opening our hands to God. Notice what Jesus said about the rich in this present world. Matthew 19:23-26 states:

And Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, ‘Who then can be saved?’ But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” 

Being rich is not a sin. But putting your faith in riches is a sin. This is why Jesus said it is very hard for rich people to be saved because their wealth will be a great temptation for them. God, however, can still save them by giving them a true faith in him, which is impossible for us to for ourselves.

Likewise, every one of us needs to become weaker in the world’s eyes, trusting less in what the world trusts, so our faith in God will increase.

3. If You Want the Lord to Be Glorified for the Victories, God Says, “Be Weaker”

God will not give you the victory if you are the one who will get the glory for it. When God is glorified through your victory, this is when God will bring that victory. Notice what the Lord said to Gideon before the battle in Judges 7:2, “The Lord said to Gideon, ‘The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, “My own hand has saved me.”’” 

God reduced Gideon’s men down to just 300 so that everyone would know it was God who brought the victory. In fact, this was the very reason God chose Gideon in the first place. It wasn’t because he was strong but rather because he was weak that God chose him. In Judges 6:14-16 it states:

And the Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?’ And he said to him, ‘Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.’”

Their weakness would ensure that God would be glorified for the strength he would give them. May our prayer be the same, as Psalm 109:27-28 states, “Let them know that this is your hand; you, O Lord, have done it! Let them curse, but you will bless!”

4. If You Want to Stop Pushing Away Love, God Says, “Be Weaker”

Love does require strength, but it requires vulnerability too.

Sometimes we think strength means being unable to get hurt. But sometimes the strongest people are the ones who are willing to experience the most pain out of love for others. Look at Jesus. His love for us led him to the cross (John 3:16).

In this sense, God wants us to lower our guard and risk being loved and giving love. Sometimes the reason we are living loveless lives is because we are projecting too much strength. If you are imbalanced in this area of your life, you will be pushing people away from you because your abundance of strength without any vulnerability will be saying to people, “Stay away. I don’t need you.”

Of course we must be secure in our love for God and not go to people to make us feel valuable. But with worldly self-strength we will cut ourselves off from the blessing of human relationships. As Colossians 3:14 states, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”