Do you ever feel helpless against all the forces at work in the world around us? Helpless to prevent our country from rapidly going down a moral and economic slide? Helpless to stop the increasing crime? Helpless against pandemics, epidemics, cancer, and all kinds of diseases besetting people these days?
Or perhaps helpless to combat sin in your mortal body? Or to stop from being discouraged or depressed? Or to deal with the ever-increasing complexities of daily living?
The list could go on, and, for each of us, it is different. Sometimes, we feel like getting angry because we don’t want to feel helpless. We want to be able to handle anything life throws at us and thrive amid the things we can’t control.
Be not dismayed.
God has a purpose for our helplessness. He wants to perfect His power through it, and He wants us to shift from relying on our own strength to relying on Him. He wants us to live by His power.
The Apostles Peter and Paul knew that struggle well. The adversities and suffering they experienced served to expose their weakness and taught them to rely on God’s supernatural power at work in them and for them. Listen to what they have to say:
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. (2 Peter 1:3)
And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might. (Ephesians 1:19)
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. (2 Corinthians 12:9)
So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:5)
For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God. (2 Corinthians 13:4)
It’s just a sampling of the many verses dedicated to God’s power at work in us. The question is: what does living by God’s power look like and how do you do it?
Let’s start with the latter. God’s power becomes operational in response to our faith. We must believe that:
1. God’s power is available to us because Jesus purchased our access to it on the cross, not because we earn it through our behavior. If it depended solely on our merit, we’d never get it!
2. We need God’s power because human power is the wrong kind. It elevates our ego and thinks it can rely on human resourcefulness and logic.
3. God’s power is the only power that can change us (and others through our prayers) into the people He wants us to be.
4. God’s power is superior to any other power – willpower, muscle power, artificial power, brainpower, manpower – because His power created the universe and raised Jesus from the dead.
5. God doesn’t force His power on us. We must receive it by faith expressed in prayer and a life of repentance, in which we daily and intentionally renounce self-reliance and seek His power at work in us.
How do we do that? It may be different for each of us according to how we are wired, what we struggle with, and where we are in our spiritual growth trajectory. Rather than theory, let me give you a peek into my own life experience.
According to John Eldredge (known from books like “Wild At Heart”), a man’s core question is, “Do I have what it takes?” In the flesh, he seeks to answer that question in the positive throughout his life. He competes and compares to prove himself. If he can’t, he looks for winning sports teams or heroes to identify with or dreams of being a hero himself someday. In the spirit, he learns to receive affirmation from his sonship to God and that he does not, and indeed cannot, earn acceptance or prove himself.
To learn that, God has pulled out the rug from under me several times. No ministry, no work, no direction – only waiting in prayer. I’ve learned that in those times, He wasn’t punishing me, I had not become a useless ministry has-been, and I wasn’t being benched. They were times in His waiting room to condition my heart to renounce self-reliance and lean solely on His power. That conditioning was necessary for the next stage in my faith walk.
Now we’re moving to Kenya. As the date of our departure nears, the mountain to climb looms larger. The hassles involved in getting ourselves, our house, and our belongings ready and what we have to do to get situated there are mounting. It’s all stuff we have little or no control over, and it eats away at self-reliance.
In the midst of all the hassle, the Father spoke to me: “Your ministry motto is everything by prayer. That really does mean everything. Don’t underestimate my power; trust me in every detail of your journey. “
We’ve ordered our preparations around that. We pray when we organize and pare down our belongings. We stop and ask for divine wisdom when faced with conundrums about bank accounts and phones. We trust Him for those little things and for the seemingly impossible things like providing the money for Eagles Wings. His power becomes perfect in our weakness when we invite it into the little and the big things.
“God helps who helps himself” isn’t in the Bible. It’s one of the biggest lies out there. His power becomes perfect in our helplessness is truth.
Be encouraged if you feel weak or helpless. Dare to trust Him for the details. Embrace helplessness as a way of life – an empty hand to receive His matchless power and fullness, which He delights to give us so that its presence and visibility in us testify to His glory!