New Morning Mercies #41

There’s not a day that you won’t need it; there’s not a situation that won’t demand it. What is it? The power of Jesus.

I knew there was only one way to help him. It was the only way because he didn’t want my help. He was only four years old and had already begun to deny his weaknesses. He desperately wanted to be independently strong and wise, but he wasn’t. He wanted to believe that he didn’t need the wise words and strong arms of a parent, but he did. He wanted to believe that he knew more than he did and had more ability than he had. So he fought my parenting care once again. Then it hit me—he needed to experience his weakness so that he would run for my care. So I walked away. No, not because I was mad at him and walking away was the best way to punish him. I walked away because I loved him and it was the best way to get him to seek and esteem that love. I knew what would happen. I knew he could not do what he was fighting so hard to do independently. I knew that at some point he would give up, admit his weakness to himself, and seek my help.

About a half hour later, I heard the pitter-patter of his little feet on the hallway floor. He peeked around the corner and said, “I can’t do it.” I said, “What do you want Daddy to do?” And he said words that were good for his heart to say: “I need your help.”

You and I weren’t created for independent living. We were created to be dependent on God. Add to this the fact that sin leaves us broken and weak. We all need strength beyond our own and power that we’ll never independently possess. So God, in grace, grants us power in the person of the Holy Spirit, who lives inside each of his children. We simply are no longer left to the resources of our own strength (see Eph. 3:20–21). To remind us of who we are, what we need, and what we’ve been given, God will walk down the hallway and let us experience our weakness once again so that we will seek and celebrate the strength that is only ever found in him. When he does this, it is not an act of divine anger but a response of tender parental grace—the kind of grace you and I will continue to need until grace has finished its work.

For further study and encouragement: 2 Corinthians 12:1–10