What Is Your Achilles Heel?

“Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9

The Achilles tendon is perhaps one of the strongest tendons in the entire body. It is named after one of the great heroes of Greek mythology, the warrior Achilles, who according to Greek legend was extraordinarily strong, courageous, and loyal. Achilles became so strong because when he was a baby, his mother was so concerned about his mortality that she did everything she could to make him immortal.

She burned him over a fire every night. She dressed his wounds with ambrosial ointment, and then one day she dunked him in the River Styx. The waters of the river were believed to confer upon a person the invulnerability of the gods and whoever dipped in that river became immortal.

Nothing could destroy them. Nothing could hurt them. Nothing could hurt him because his mother dipped him in that special water. There was only one problem. When his mother, Thetis, dipped him in the water she had to hold him tightly by the foot so that she could lower the rest of his body into the river.

As a result, every part of his body was protected except his heel. As Achilles grew up, he was strong, he was protected, and he was invincible everywhere except in his heel. And to this day the phrase “Achilles heel” has come down to us from a story in Greek mythology to describe a person’s weakness despite their strength.

This raises the question, what is your Achilles heel? What weakness do you continue to wrestle with? 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, “Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can work through me.”

Even if you haven’t thought about it before, you have an Achilles heel. We all do. No one is perfect. We all have weaknesses. But the good news is Christ's power works best in weakness! God does not expect you to be perfect. All He wants is for you to lean on Him when you are weak, because when you are weak, He is strong!