Journaling When You Feel Weak

Leave a comment
Journaling When You Feel Weak

The Power of Not Enough

How often do you feel like you are failing?

You feel your faith is “too small.” You feel you’re not a good enough mother. You feel you aren’t a patient enough partner. You feel you aren’t a strong enough Christian.

You feel your weakness. You feel your anxiety. You feel your impatience. You feel your weariness.

You see these things as a problem. You think God is waiting for you to fix them.

The Wrong Prayer

We come to our journals with a list of our failings. We beg God to make us “stronger.”

But consider this.

What if our weakness isn’t the obstacle? What if it is the invitation?

The Apostle Paul was one of the “strongest” Christians who ever lived. Yet he had a “thorn in his flesh.” He begged God to take it away.

God’s answer is one of the most radical, freeing truths in all of Scripture.

He said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 cORINTHIANS 12:9

Perfect in the Cracks

Notice the wording.

Not “My power will replace your weakness.” Not “My power will fix your weakness.”

He said His power is made perfect… IN it.

Think of Kintsugi pottery. The gold doesn’t hide the crack. It highlights it. It makes the piece more valuable because it was broken.

Your weakness is not a failure. It is the very space God needs to show His strength.

Your weariness is the perfect, empty vessel for His grace.

Your “not enough” is the exact prerequisite for Him to be your “all-sufficient.”

yOUR PROMPTS

Prompts for Your “Sufficient” Grace

Your journal is the place to stop hiding your weakness. It is the place to start bringing it.

  • Name the “Thorn”: “What is the ‘weakness’ or ‘thorn’ that makes me feel like I am failing right now? (for example, My impatience. My anxiety. My exhaustion.)”
  • Acknowledge the Striving: “Where have I been trying to ‘fix’ this? Where have I been trying to be ‘strong’ all on my own?”
  • The Great Reframe: “What would it feel like to believe that THIS very weakness is the place God’s power lives? What if my crack is where His gold shines?”
  • A Prayer of Surrender: “Lord, I stop striving. I bring you my weakness of… I ask for your ‘sufficient grace.’ Meet me IN it. Just for today.”

yOUR ACTION POINT

Your Action Point: The “Boasting” Anchor

This is Paul’s radical next step. He said, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses…”

  1. Notice. The next time you feel that hot sting of guilt over your weakness (for example, “I’m so impatient!”), I want you to pause.
  2. Reframe. Instead of beating yourself up, quietly reframe it.
  3. Say this:
    • “Ah, there is my weakness.”
    • “This is the perfect opportunity for God’s grace to be sufficient for me.”

This one, small shift moves you from shame to surrender.

It changes everything.

With grace, Debbera