People who are very confident in their own abilities and what they’ve achieved seldom know much of God. Before we can discover God’s power and strength in all of its fullness, we must be brought face to face with our own inability and weakness.

We will all go through times in our lives that we’d rather avoid. Like the apostle Paul, we will ask the Lord to remove difficulty from our lives, and we may receive the answer that, if we’re honest, we don’t always desire to hear: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Many of us spend our lives trying to be strong for others, to press on and to hold it together for those we care about. We may even begin to believe that we can do that—but we can’t. Even on our best days, we discover that we have limits that we can’t overcome on our own. Yet if we will only acknowledge how desperately weak we are, we will be amazed to see the power of God unleashed within our lives. The way to be truly strong for others is to lean on the Lord’s strength, rather than to rely on our own.

Perhaps as you read this you are physically, emotionally, or spiritually drained—and if you are not, the time for feeling that way will come. In your moments of weakness, you will be faced with a choice: you can ask God to give you strength, or you can turn to idols. Your natural inclination will not be to turn to God but to rejuvenate and reassure yourself by other means—your possessions, your intellect, your energy, your past achievements. Yet the prophet pursues us with these words: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me’” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

Instead of trying to press on in your own strength today, allow the Holy Spirit to minister this truth to your soul: God supplies His strength for your weakness. He says, “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” You serve a God who has eyes that see you, knees that stoop to help you, and hands that reach out to embrace you. Humbly turn to Him in your weakness and be prepared for Him to meet you with His strength.