Itâs a humbling thing to realise how much you need God. It can happen at any point in life, and often it comes in waves, breaking us down more and more each time we have a fresh soaking of revelation.
Uncomfortable as it is, to realise how vulnerable we are, as Christians, we can delight in the comforting truth that in our weakness, He is strong.
Godâs strength is unfathomable. How do you even start to process the strength of a God who can pull back oceans to reveal land? We canât quantify His strength in human terms, He is the creator of the universe. While we canât understand it, it pays to take time to ponder the mystery of Godâs strength.
âGod is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.â Psalm 46
Take some time to sit in wonder, meditating on the strength and size of our God. Itâs a practice that will help shift your perspective and your heart posture all in one. As you focus on the vastness of God, the scale of challenges and fears in your life will shrink back to their proper size. Knowing Godâs strength is an uplifting, affirming position to live your life from.
One of our age-old pitfalls as humans is being tempted to go it alone and seek self-sufficiency. Independence, while in some ways a very practical and appealing proposition, is actually a trap. Since the moment Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden with God, the enemy has been tempting humanity with the same lie: to swap intimacy with God and full reliance on Him for living like our own little gods instead.
Some of the practical parts of independence are brilliant, knowing how to look after yourself for example. But we were designed to live as family with God right alongside us. The voices of this world and the enemy would convince us that we need protection in place, that we need to be able to stand on our own two feet and not rely on anybody when actually the opposite is true.
We were designed to be cohabiters, and co-rulers with God. Just as a child learns everything they know from their parents, and grows up in full expectation of an inheritance, we can live safely in the confidence that God will teach us, care for us and that thereâs a heavenly inheritance set aside just for us.
When we rely on Godâs strength instead of our own, we live the way we were created to live. We affirm our identity as sons and daughters of God and start to untangle ourselves from the lies of this world.
Letting God carry the burden of being our protector and provider liberates us. It empowers us to be the whole, healthy and called sons and daughters of a king we were always made to be. That doesnât mean we donât work or build a life, it means we trust God with every detail, leaning into relationship with Him at every opportunity.
âBut he said to me, âMy grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.â Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christâs power may rest on me. That is why, for Christâs sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.â 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10
Paul communicates this truth better than anybody, but it can still be a tough message to swallow. While we may pray for all the bad stuff in life to pass us by or go away, Paul teaches us to remember that itâs in our weakest moments that Godâs strength is revealed the most in us.
Itâs when we really need God, in our rock bottom moments, that we reveal who He is to others and encounter a fresh revelation of who He is.
James echoes this message when he tells us to ârejoice in every trialâ. Itâs a challenging way to live, to truly find joy in the hard times. But when you live with intimacy with God and reliance on Him as your focus, it is possible.
Singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen touched on the truth, too, when he wrote:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
Itâs our brokenness, our weak moments, the âcracksâ that reveal God in us.
Our worst moments in life make space for God to reveal His goodness. They also let us encounter His strength like never before. Isaiah 40 includes a beautiful passage about this:
âHe gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength."
When, in our low momentsâthe times when life really wears us downâwe turn to God, He turns right back towards us. He lends us His strength. We can trust that God will be with us in every minute of our difficult days and that Heâll sustain us, lending us everything we need to see us through. It doesn't mean He takes all the bad stuff away, it means He walks with us through it, leading us through the valley and making sure we have enough rest and refreshment as we go.
âIn our weakness, He is strongâ isnât a meaningless greetings card message; itâs a promise that God will be with us through every dark and difficult day.
As with everything else in our life, Jesus is the perfect model for living a life fully reliant on Godâs strength.
When you study Jesusâ life you notice a pattern, one that we can still learn from today.
Jesus often withdrew, taking himself away from his friends and whatever else he had on. He used these times of retreat to connect with God. This pattern of withdrawing has been commented on time and time again by theologians and teachers and thereâs much to learn from it. One thing is clear, though, Jesus was left strengthened by his time alone with God.
If Jesus chose to set aside time for some 1-1 connection with God, how much more do we need it?
God is our strength. He is our ever-present help in times of trouble but, for us to see the fruit of that in our life, we must turn to Him in our struggles.
You can trust Him with the big stuff. No challenge, no pain, and no loss are too big for God. Try inviting Him in today and experiencing His transformative grace and goodness. Even on your hardest days, Godâs goodness can break through.