There are seasons in life when you come face to face with your limitations.

You have tried everything you know to do. You have applied your experience, wisdom, connections, resources, and strength. Yet, there comes a point when you realise that there are some things you simply cannot handle by yourself.

What do you do when you get to that point?

You don’t give up. You don’t panic. And you certainly don’t pretend that you are strong enough to handle everything on your own.

You learn to depend on the grace of God.

Hebrews 4:16 says:

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Notice the language of Scripture: “grace to help in time of need.”

There is grace for your weakness. There is grace for your situation. There is grace for the season you are in.

But one of the first things we must learn in cooperating with the grace of God is to acknowledge our weakness.

ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR WEAKNESS

One of the greatest resistances to the grace of God is pride.

James 4:6 says, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”

Pride makes us believe we can do everything by ourselves. It makes us unwilling to admit our limitations. It makes us think we must always have the answer, always be right, and always be in control.

But nobody is omnipotent. Nobody knows everything. Nobody is always right.

The Apostle Paul understood this. In Philippians 3, he listed the things that could have given him confidence in himself: his background, qualifications, religious credentials, zeal, and righteousness according to the law.

Yet after listing them, Paul counted them as a loss for Christ.

Why?

Because our confidence is not ultimately in what we have or what we can do. Our confidence is in Christ.

This is what it means to be poor in spirit.

Jesus said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

To be poor in spirit does not mean that you are poor in your pocket. It means that you recognise your inadequacy and understand that your natural ability cannot be the foundation of your confidence.

You may have qualifications, but you don’t put your ultimate trust in them.

You may have money, but money is not your source.

You may have a good job, but your job is not your source.

You may have a successful business, but your business is not your source.

These things can be means, but God is your Source

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:5:

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.”

That is the attitude God desires from us.

ACKNOWLEDGE HIS GRACE

Acknowledging your weakness should not make you afraid. It should make you look to the One whose strength is greater than your weakness.

Isaiah said:

“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.” Isaiah 6:1

Isaiah saw himself, but he also saw God.

He saw his inadequacy, but he also saw God’s greatness.

That is the balance we must maintain.

I may be weak, but He is strong.

Your problem may be great, but God is greater.

Your mountain may be high, but God is higher.

Your need may be great, but He is the greater Provider.

The fiercer the storm, the greater the One who is with you.

This is why Paul could say in 2 Corinthians 12:9:

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Paul wanted God to remove the difficulty. God instead revealed the sufficiency of His grace.

Sometimes, we want God to change the situation immediately. But while we are asking God, “When will You change this?”, God may be teaching us, “You can trust Me in this.”

You may not have the strength for everything that is happening around you.

You don’t need to.

His grace is sufficient.

REST IN THE LOVE OF THE FATHER

There is another truth we must learn: God loves us.

Not because we performed perfectly.

Not because we have done everything right.

Not because we have earned His favour.

He loves us because He is love.

1 John 4:10 says:

“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

This changes the way we approach God.

Some people think that if they perform well enough, pray long enough, give enough, or do enough good things, God will finally love them and respond to them.

But the Gospel reveals something different.

He loved us first.

Before your performance, there was His love.

Before your achievement, there was His love.

Before you got everything right, there was His love.

Romans 5:8 says:

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

So when Scripture tells us that perfect love casts out fear, it is not primarily about how perfectly we love God. It is about coming to the revelation of how deeply God loves us.

1 John 4:16 says:

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.”

There is a difference between knowing about God’s love and believing God’s love.

You can know that God loves people and still struggle to believe that He loves you.

But you must come to the place where you know and believe His love.

You may not understand everything you are going through.

You may not understand why it happened.

You may not understand why it has lasted this long.

But you can still rest in the love of the Father.

You may not know how He will bring you out, but you can trust that He will.

DON’T LET THE DARKNESS MAKE YOU GIVE UP

There are seasons when everything seems gloomy.

You are pressed on every side. You have prayed, but the answer has not come in the way you expected. You have asked God to change the situation, yet the situation remains.

That is not the time to throw in the towel.

Scripture says, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

The night does not have the authority to cancel the morning.

Your present circumstance does not have the authority to determine your final outcome.

God is still God in the night.

He is still God when the answer seems delayed.

He is still God when you don’t understand the process.

He is still God when your strength has failed.

Think about the disciples in the storm. The winds were raging, the waters were rising, and they were afraid.

Yet Jesus was in the same boat with them.

He was not absent from the storm.

And He was not intimidated by it.

God is with you, but He does not share your anxiety.

He is in the situation with you, but He is not overwhelmed by the situation.

The problem that is frightening you is not frightening Him.

The greater One lives in you.

1 John 4:4 says:

“Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”

So acknowledge your weakness, but don’t stop there.

Acknowledge His power. Rest in His love. Keep trusting Him.

COME BOLDLY

The beautiful thing about God’s love is that He does not wait for us to become perfect before He reaches for us.

Look at Adam.

After Adam sinned, God came looking for him:

“Adam, where are you?”

God already knew what had happened. Yet He came looking for him.

The One who had been offended was the One who initiated the way of redemption.

That is the heart of God’s unconditional love.

And now, because of what Christ has accomplished, we are invited to come boldly to the throne of grace.

Not timidly.

Not as strangers.

Not believing that we have to convince God to care about us.

We come because He has already demonstrated His love.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:7:

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

He then gave us the picture of a father responding to the needs of his child. If human fathers know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will our heavenly Father?

So, whatever you are facing today, don’t allow your weakness to make you doubt God’s ability.

Don’t allow the delay to make you doubt His love.

Don’t allow the storm to make you forget who is in the boat with you.

Come boldly.

Ask.

Seek.

Knock.

Trust your Father.

HIS GRACE IS ENOUGH

There may be seasons when you don’t know what tomorrow holds.

You may not understand how the situation will change.

You may not even have the strength to face everything that is in front of you.

But you can know this:

Your Father loves you.

His grace is sufficient for you.

His strength is greater than your weakness.

You don’t have to pretend to be strong enough.

You don’t have to have all the answers.

You don’t have to carry what God has not asked you to carry.

When your strength fails, look to Him.

When the road becomes difficult, trust Him.

When the answer seems delayed, wait on Him.

And when you come to the end of yourself, remember that you have not come to the end of God’s grace.

When your strength is not enough, His grace is.