I am weak.
I know all too well that I don’t have the strength or wisdom to love the people around me, the perseverance or expertise to serve well in ministry, the willpower or faithfulness to keep fighting my sin…again and again and again. It can be overwhelming, stressful, and discouraging.
Can you relate to this? What are we to do?
The way I want to respond is to cancel commitments to take the load off or stop resisting temptation. In reality, I often just attempt to muster up what I need to press on. But it doesn’t work. While God has made us to need rest, no amount of recharging will resolve my finiteness or deficiencies in wisdom, skill and power. The answer to my inadequacies is not in getting enough “me time,” or “knuckling down” to keep going, or “faking it until I make it.”
In fact, the solution is not to be found in anything I can do or manufacture or achieve at all. Instead, it is all about what God does. The Apostle Paul answers my question with a question. He says of God,
I know all too well that I don’t have the strength or wisdom to love the people around me, the perseverance or expertise to serve well in ministry, the willpower or faithfulness to keep fighting my sin…again and again and again. It can be overwhelming, stressful, and discouraging.
Can you relate to this? What are we to do?
The way I want to respond is to cancel commitments to take the load off or stop resisting temptation. In reality, I often just attempt to muster up what I need to press on. But it doesn’t work. While God has made us to need rest, no amount of recharging will resolve my finiteness or deficiencies in wisdom, skill and power. The answer to my inadequacies is not in getting enough “me time,” or “knuckling down” to keep going, or “faking it until I make it.”
In fact, the solution is not to be found in anything I can do or manufacture or achieve at all. Instead, it is all about what God does. The Apostle Paul answers my question with a question. He says of God,
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
I have misunderstood what it means to do life “in God’s strength.” I have often attempted to wield God’s power for Him – like an impersonal force in my control – as I seek to live my life for Him. But I am mistaken in doing so. The ability He provides through His Spirit is not some mystical energy that we can plug into to keep going or to make situations play out well. Not at all. Rather, the strength that He gives is Himself. All of Him in all of me.
God has promised me “all” I need. I can lift my heart to Him and cry, “Help!” And, like the loving, strong Father He is, He answers. He comes, He restores, He equips, and He fills me with every good thing...again and again and again.
As for those weakest times, they are transformed into a precious blessing as I experience God’s personal, gracious and powerful presence. We meet Him again with such relief and His sufficiency overflows.
Yes, it is like this for every believer. The promise is the same for you. It is certain that
God has promised me “all” I need. I can lift my heart to Him and cry, “Help!” And, like the loving, strong Father He is, He answers. He comes, He restores, He equips, and He fills me with every good thing...again and again and again.
As for those weakest times, they are transformed into a precious blessing as I experience God’s personal, gracious and powerful presence. We meet Him again with such relief and His sufficiency overflows.
Yes, it is like this for every believer. The promise is the same for you. It is certain that
God...is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13 NASB
Philippians 2:13 NASB
We can say with complete assurance and confidence with Paul,
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Galatians 2:20 ESV
Galatians 2:20 ESV