“Each time He said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.“ (2 Corinthians 12:9 - New Living Translation)

We rely on our strengths and abilities to escape difficult circumstances. God sees that this attitude of our hearts leads us further from Him. Therefore, in His love for us, God will allow difficulty to remain for a season so that we will recognize our weakness and vulnerability and learn to depend on Him only. The Bible states in 2 Corinthians 4.7, “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed…” Yet God applies the pressure to the point that all we can do is look upward to Him for help. The apostle Paul also wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 that they were burdened beyond measure, above strength (their strength) so that they even despaired of life, having the sentence of death in themselves so that they would not trust in themselves but in God.

Perhaps the difficulties and challenges you face today are a gentle reminder of God’s merciful kindness in bringing you to greater dependence upon Him. For it is here that God desires us to realize our incapability to rescue ourselves from the tempest and storm that rages against us. In these moments, we learn to depend more on Him and less on ourselves as we humbly turn to Him for deliverance. God may choose not to remove the affliction immediately, as in the case of the apostle Paul, but through it, He will give us all the grace and strength we need every moment of the day. For we can do all things through Christ, who gives us strength. (Philippians 4:13)