Vol. 22 No. 17 | April 27, 2020
So Weak and Helpless
When I sat down to write this week, I realized that I have run out of new words. So, I’m pulling out a piece I wrote many years ago, cut a few paragraphs and added a couple of new ones.
[Written: September 8, 2003, Published in Until Hope Returns, June 2018]
“Lord, I feel so weak and helpless!” That is the honest cry of the struggling servant. That is the honest cry of one who tries to serve the Creator of the universe but wonders if he has the strength to continue. That is the heart cry of mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. That is the heart cry of the husbands and wives. That is the pleading of the disciple who wants more than anything to faithfully follow God, but who is growing weary, confused, and wondering if he has what it takes to overcome to the end.
“Lord, I feel so weak and helpless!” says the father as he watches his son makes one more decision that will lead him farther from home. He has prayed constantly since before the boy was born that he would be a good father. That he would have wisdom. That he would be able to guide this son as God would have him to. Now, he’s wondering what he did wrong.
“Lord, I feel so weak and helpless!” says the man who is struggling to keep his business going. He has integrity. He believes in doing what is right, but the “good guy” seems to be coming in last. He is not sure how much longer he can hold on.
“Lord, I feel so weak and helpless!” says the single mom who must be mom, dad, friend, disciplinarian, and spiritual leader for the children she has been left to care for. She’s committed to bringing them to church regularly, but even that has become a battleground.
“Lord, I feel so weak and helpless!”
[Written: April 2020]
“Lord, I feel so weak and helpless!” says the ones who have lost their jobs and wonder how they are going to pay their rent. Those are the words of the schoolteacher who is preparing online classes for her students as well as helping her own children do their schoolwork and missing out on joys of being at home with her children. That is the confession of those of us who have been staying home to be healthy and to protect others, working from home but constantly feeling the need to do more.
“Lord, I feel so weak and helpless!” says the medical workers who are and committed to being there with their patients, so they don’t die alone. Says the patient who is confused and dying, afraid and unsure why this is happening, and unable to communicate with his family. And that is the cry of the family members who cannot be with him, hold his hand, and tell him his is loved as he takes his last breath.
“Lord, I feel so weak and helpless!”
God hears the cries.
He responds. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (1 Corinthians 12:7-10, NIV).
“Lord, I feel so weak and helpless!” His grace is sufficient.
A Norvell Note © Copyright 2020 Tom Norvell All Rights Reserved