Raise your hand if any of these apply to you… 🙋♀️
Burning the candle at both ends…
Running on empty
Running on fumes
Spread too thin
Wearing too many hats
Juggling too much
In over my head
Too much on my plate
Stretching myself thin
Barely holdin’ on
…Sound familiar?
Maybe it’s daily for you. Maybe it’s project by project. Maybe it’s season by season. Or maybe you swing between overdoing everything and avoiding it altogether because you’re maxed…
But what actually happens when we tackle life like this?
We take on the challenge determined to do it well, feeling the weight of it every step of the way. We stress out, we feel that low-grade panic buzzing in the background, we get short, grumpy, and irritable with the people around us, and we carry it all with the lie that that is how God wants us to do it.
We pour in everything we have — all our strength, our effort, our knowledge, our time — convinced that if we don’t handle it just right, it won’t work out. It won’t be excellent. And often, in all that striving, we forget that God is in charge of the ultimate outcome anyway.
We get so busy trying to pull off this “awesome result” that we end up attempting it without actually relying on Him. 😅
We muscle our way through it. We ask God to “help,” but we never actually release control… (GUILTY RIGHT HERE). We keep managing, fixing, adjusting, pushing — all in our own strength — and then wonder why we’re exhausted. That is not surrender. That’s self-reliance with a prayer attached to it.
My mom used to say, “Don’t cry when the chips fly.” (Which, in my 8-year-old brain, made absolutely no sense. Chips? Why are they flying?)
But today… it’s all comin’ together 😂.
She meant: you reap what you sow.
If I sow self-reliance, I reap exhaustion.
If I sow control, I reap pressure.
If I sow hustle, I reap burnout.
That’s not spiritual attack.
That’s math.
And THAT, my friends, is NOT what God wants.
2 Corinthians 12:10 (TPT)
“For my weakness becomes a portal to God’s power.”
Paul pleaded three times for relief. God didn’t remove the weakness.
Instead, Paul got to learn a valuable lesson he is desperately trying to teach us here… WE NEED GOD’S GRACE. God’s power reaches its full expression through OUR weakness.
Paul stopped seeing weakness as defeat and started seeing it as the very place Christ’s power rests. What looked like limitation became access. His weakness became the portal.
CAN YOU DO THAT?
Our culture — even our churches — preach:
You can do it all!
Woman power!
Kill it in ALL your circles!
Boss babe!
You’ve got this!
Girl Power!!
Wow. Sounds so great. But also, not real. At all.
Do you know when we are strong and capable? At our weakest.
Say with me out loud: “AT MY WEAKEST”.
What is our weakest?
3 Quick Things:
1. Weakness Is Not the Obstacle — It Is the Opening
Paul does not say weakness blocks God’s power.
He says it becomes a portal for God’s power.
A portal is an entry point.
An access point.
A way in — into your life, your situation, your task at hand.
The weakness we try to eliminate or hide — our exhaustion, our limits, our inability — becomes the very place Christ’s power gains access… if we actually surrender it.
The obstacle we fight is actually the doorway. Think about that.
2. Self-Strength CLOSES What Weakness OPENS
When we muster up our own strength, we reduce our need. Sure, you can pull it off with mad grit and determination. You can white-knuckle the whole thing and make it happen. But in doing that, you CLOSE the portal for God’s strength to step in — and slowly start living like you don’t actually need Him.
And when we reduce our need, we dull our awareness of His grace.
I can muscle my way through almost anything. I can pull off most things with sheer willpower. But THAT way of doing things — and how many of YOU are guilty of this? — shuts down the very access point where God’s power wants to intercept what we’re carrying.
Paul had to come to the end of himself. Only there could he say, “I sense more deeply the mighty power of Christ living in me.”
Self-sufficiency narrows the portal.
Humility widens it.
3. The Goal Is Not to Be Strong — The Goal Is to Be Dependent
GIRLS… hear me.
We need to be tough. We need to handle more. We need to be resilient, willing to be used, spent, for Jesus.
But not in the way we’ve trained ourselves.
Not by mustering up our personal resilience, determination, and sheer willpower.
Paul’s conclusion is shocking:
“I am not defeated by my weakness, but delighted.”
Why? Because weakness positioned him to experience Christ more fully.
The strength he walked in was not personal resilience. It was the power of Christ resting upon him.
I want that.
If we want to accomplish anything LASTING for God, it will not come from our intensified effort — but from our surrendered dependence.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION?
Where am I doubling down on my own effort? Where am I living in high-stress mode? Where do I feel spent — running on fumes?
Have I actually sought the Lord about it? Truly.
Have I laid it at His feet — and left it there? Not walked away praying… only to pick it back up on the way out the door.
Have I surrendered in humility so He can have His way — not assist mine?
Open the portal by acknowledging your weakness and requiring His strength.
Our weakness is not the liability. It’s the access point.
Go Girls, let’s become excellent at one thing — depending on Him and Him alone. 🔥
