“I labor on in weakness and rejoicing.”
Those lyrics from the song “Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me” by Jonny Robinson, Rich Thompson, and Michael Farren gripped me when we sang it during church last Sunday.
The labor reference brought to mind work, toil, and suffering. I didn’t think of that kind of labor, although pregnancy-induced labor can simultaneously end in weakness and rejoicing. But then I remembered how God intervened decades ago during my emergency delivery. His miracle came after I labored through low heart rate episodes and other signs of my baby’s distress. God provided an expert obstetrical surgery team and brought me through my weakness to rejoicing at our healthy baby’s birth.
I need to remember those past miracles and trust God in my present circumstances. Thankfully, I am not enduring crushing labor pains, horrendous setbacks, or debilitating health crises. In contrast, those on my prayer list face serious problems: a critically-ill hospitalized baby, three friends coping with their spouse’s sudden death, and two people facing final battles after years of cancer treatments. Yet I feel weak and weary at my everyday frustrations with people, schedules, and things that break.
The song “Yet Not I but Through Christ in Me” portrays how I can trust in Christ through my current challenges. In his blogpost, Cru speaker and author Dan Flynn praises the biblical nature of these lyrics. He lists over twenty attributes of Jesus mentioned in this song. Many are evident in the second verse and refrain:
The night is dark but I am not forsaken
For by my side, the Savior He will stay
I labor on in weakness and rejoicing
For in my need, His power is displayed.
To this I hold, my Shepherd will defend me
Through the deepest valley He will lead
Oh the night has been won, and I shall overcome
Yet not I, but through Christ in me.
That same phrase, “labor on in weakness and rejoicing,” has struck me before. The combo of weakness and rejoicing sounds like an oxymoron until viewed through a biblical lens. God’s power fills my inadequacy, as the song proclaims, “for in my need, His power is displayed.” I don’t have the strength to push myself past my own weaknesses. I need God to strengthen me for my tasks, a relationship Paul describes so well:
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
Only Jesus Christ can empower me to get through my stuff, whether serious or inconsequential. When I take my eyes off Him and try to pursue my own ideas in vain independence, I disobey God’s will and purposes for me. My prayers come from my vantage point in the front row where I see friends and family dealing with so much. Although tired of interceding for God’s relief of their suffering, I know that when I get derailed into my own pity party, I become self-focused and my prayer life declines.
Lord God, convict me of my
focus on self-sufficiency instead of trusting in you,
blindness to my need for your power,
and pursuit of my personal comfort instead of helping others.
Teach me to rely only on You as “I labor on in weakness and rejoicing.” In Jesus’ name. Amen.