Why Our Weakness Is Designed to Draw Us Closer to God
Why Our Weakness Is Designed to Draw Us Closer to God
by Emily A . Jensen
8
My hands gripped the steering wheel like I was driving through a thunderstorm , but the car wasn ’ t moving . I sat in a dark parking lot with my hands at ten and two while tears streamed down my cheeks . Not the pretty kind you might see in an old film , where a single tear can be gently dabbed away with a tissue . My chest heaved , and I wailed more like a child than the twenty-year-old woman I was . It was a cry from the deep — not just tears for another failed relationship but the physical response of disappointment heaped upon disappointment , mess upon mess that I ’ d made of my life . I ’ d lived apart from God , but could I even call it life ? For all I ’ d done and tried , I had nothing but ruins to show for it .
For the first time in my adult life , I raised a sincere cry to God . With head low , I could mutter only two words : “ Help me .”
And help He did .
Within the week , I heard the gospel and believed . I surrendered my life to Christ . God helped me not by instantly cleaning up the mess I ’ d made of life but by giving me new life in Him .
When I look back on those moments , nearly twenty years ago now , I think of the deepest kind of weakness a person can experience . Something worse than being keeled over with back pain or feeling insufficient for a task . It ’ s the kind of weakness that each person must reckon with before a holy God . Our souls suppress it because we don ’ t want to face how minuscule , broken , dead and incapable we are apart from Him .
In the book bearing his name , Isaiah , an Old Testament prophet , describes his vision of God . Seeing the Lord seated on a throne , surrounded by fearsome heavenly beings and quaking foundations , Isaiah cried out , “ Woe is me !” In modern English , we don ’ t use the word “ woe ” to describe our feelings . But Isaiah ’ s vocabulary included “ woe ,” and he would have used it to reflect deep despair and desperation . His listeners would have known “ woe ” was a cry full of passion and lament — almost an involuntary reflex . For Isaiah , “ woe ” was a sinner ’ s wail upon seeing a holy God . And he brings us further into his state of mind when he adds , “ I am lost . I am a man of unclean lips .” I love the King
James Version ’ s translation : “ I am undone .” At some point or another , like Isaiah , each of us will be undone . You ’ ll kneel before the one true God ( Isaiah 45:23 ; Philippians 2:10- 11 ). You ’ ll cry out and feel exposed in your sin ( Revelation 20:11-15 ). This can happen now , or it will happen later , at the second coming of Christ and final judgment . The certainty of our humbling is why Scripture implores us , “ Today , if you hear his voice , do not harden your hearts ” ( Hebrews 3:15 , emphasis added ). The gospel , or the good news , is that each of us can turn to Him for grace now , while the joy and reward are immediate , abundant and eternal . God promises to do for us what He did for Isaiah , taking away our guilt and sending us on mission ( Isaiah 6:6-9 ).
Today , if you feel weak because you ’ ve made mess upon mess of your life , or because mess upon mess has been heaped upon you , let the weight drop you low . Collapse beneath the load in sweet relief . And leave the weight of your weakness again at the feet of Jesus Christ . There is no reason for you to try to clean up the mess in a strength you don ’ t possess . Instead , cry out to Jesus Christ . He allowed Himself to be crushed so you could walk freely today . And He lends His ear to every “ woe .”
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Let these Scripture-filled reflections remind you that Jesus loves you , even in your weakness . HC $ 17.99