Powerless?

• Maybe you have dreamed and trained all your life to swim for gold in the Olympics then you realize you must compete against Michael Phelps.
• Maybe it was this morning when you welcomed the day then remembered you could not move without assistance.
• Maybe it was when your boss called you into his office and informed you that you were being terminated.
• Maybe it was when your bank called and informed you that there were insufficient funds to cover the checks you had written.
• Maybe it was when your wife admitted that she was having an affair and had talked to an attorney about a divorce.
• Maybe it was when your best friend called to tell you that her tests results confirmed that her cancer was malignant.
• Maybe it was when your daughter took off with her boyfriend leaving a note saying they were going to get married.
• Maybe it was when your doctor called and asked for you to come to her office to discuss an unusual shadowing on your X-ray.
• Maybe it was when you were called on to speak in a meeting when you were totally unprepared.
• Maybe it was when the nurse placed your baby in your arms for the first time and the reality of being a parent washed over you.
• Maybe it was during you first year of marriage when the disagreement turned to an ugly argument and you had that twinge of doubt.
• Maybe it was when you first realized your sinful nature and that your sin separated you from God.

On any given day we can be reminded of our powerlessness, our inability to save ourselves, and our need for help... especially our need for a savior. The good news is that our God understands our powerlessness and has provided for us.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8 NIV).To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NIV).