Power in weakness

The devotions for the coming week are featured in LCA International Mission’s 2025 ‘Pentecost Devotional and Prayer Guide’ and are written by mission partners from around the world. LCA International Mission invites you to pray during Pentecost for the connections and ministries of our international partners. As we mark 50 days after Easter, may this guide encourage you to reflect on the work of the Holy Spirit in your own life and how you can respond to God’s love. An electronic copy of the full devotional is available to download at the LCA International Mission website. Please email lcaim@lca.org.au or phone 08 8267 7317 to request a printed copy.

by Andrew Ronnevik

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And I came to you in weakness … My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit … (1 Corinthians 2:3a,4).

Read 1 Corinthians 2:1–16

Today’s text seems like a strange Scripture for Pentecost. Paul describes how his speech is not lofty but low, how he does not come with wisdom but with weakness. More specifically, he proclaims that his message is only Christ crucified. Paul’s words clash with what we usually associate with Pentecost: receiving the spectacular gifts of the Spirit, speaking in tongues, wowing a crowd, launching a world-changing movement.

Sometimes, God’s Spirit bestows presents that are easy to recognise and rejoice about, like healing, evangelistic success and intimate communion with God. But mostly, the Spirit moves in hidden ways that we cannot naturally regard as desirable. The Holy Spirit often gives weakness, empowering us to rely all the more on God alone. The Holy Spirit gives us faith in the crucified one who cries out and dies – and in this Christ alone, not in some unscarred conqueror, do we receive God’s power to overcome sin, death and the devil.

The Spirit is present and powerful and gives love, joy and peace. Here, Paul reveals how Christ’s Spirit abides with us in our lives, struggles and all. When Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit drove him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Immediately afterwards, Jesus, still filled with the Spirit, taught throughout Galilee and was praised by everyone (Luke 4:1–15). Baptised into Christ, our Spirit-filled lives take a similar shape.

Here in Papua New Guinea, I often feel weak and foolish. But sometimes, there are moments when I am able, by God’s grace, to communicate the gospel with clarity to my students. In this, it is the Holy Spirit who is at work. The same is true for you. United by faith with Christ through your baptism, your life is in the Spirit. When you tremble with fear like Paul, when you can do nothing but point to the defeated Christ on the cross, and when you find yourself swept up in the joyful power of Pentecost, you are sustained and filled by the Spirit.

Where do you notice the Holy Spirit at work in your weakness?

Pray for Andrew, Meredith, Bea and Hans Ronnevik, sent by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as they communicate the gospel through the strength of the Holy Spirit in Papua New Guinea.

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