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You want me weaker?

I feel weaker and weaker as I wait for you to save me.  But I put my trust in your word. (Psalm 119:81 ERV)

Have you ever just wondered why God makes us wait for something? Why is it the thing we so desperately desire or "require" seems to take so long to come to fruition in our lives? We don't always understand God's timing, nor do we appreciate it fully! We think, "You are all-powerful, God, so why don't you just do this right now?" We want to understand what he is waiting for - and we may be surprised it is for us to become just a little weaker. If God gave us everything at our strongest and most determined part of our lives, do you think we'd learn to trust him? Probably not!

As we become weaker and weaker, there is something that happens - we begin to lean into God. Don't believe me? Think of the last time you were really "desperate" for God to step in and do something in your life. The more your desperation grew, the weaker you got, and the more you pressed in to hear what he was saying, see how he was moving, and understand his purposes in whatever it was you were going through. It could just be God has a design in our waiting - it might just be to bring us to a place of "weakness" - that place where we press in just a little closer.

After a period of victory in our lives, what often comes our way? Isn't it a period that almost drives us to the point of desperation? We want the mountaintop experience all the time in our lives, but there is something beautiful about even the rocky and craggy places in our lives that we don't want to entirely miss. We develop strength in navigating those places under the hand and watchful eye of our Savior. We learn to look for the small blessings even in the most barren of places - because those symbols of hope bring us deeper into a place of trusting Jesus with our next steps.

In those rocky places, we grow weak - because navigating them takes all our strength and then some! We don't realize how limited our strength is until we are driven to the place where it wanes. We don't realize how weak we are until the challenge becomes too great for us to handle alone! I like to learn new things in various computer software programs, but when I want to, I don't just "experiment" with the buttons on the keyboard. I go to the experts - read their blogs, follow their detailed instructions, and watch their guiding videos to help me develop those skills I need for whatever it is I am trying to accomplish. Why? They know what I don't!

God knows what we don't. He also knows we won't seek that knowledge sometimes until we have exhausted our own. It is at that place of weakness when we finally begin to reach out to find his solution. Maybe those places of challenge aren't all that bad after all. Just sayin!


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