Falling

Strength. It’s the characteristic that has defined you. You work out, eat well, build muscle. You are sharp. You have received an education. You read, ask questions and receive answers. You are experienced. You have become a master in you area of gifting, advising those younger. You may be financially solid. You have worked, invested, and stewarded. Strong, sharp, solid.

Yet, without fail, a time comes for each and every one of us where we feel like we are falling from what we once were, from where we once were. The truth is, being strong, educated and experienced… all of these fail us at some point. Your body doesn’t do what it’s supposed to. An injury or age sets in. Education isn’t enough, and you can’t figure out why. Your usual routine or equation no longer works. The decisions of others or your own blind spots shake your financial stability.

There comes a time where anything temporal reveals its finite nature. What excelled in that season, works no longer. Though it may feel like the bottom is falling out beneath you, there is good news: “The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him” (Nahum‬ ‭1:7).

It turns out, your strength doesn’t lie in the gym or grocery store. Your favor doesn’t come from your discipline, earthy effort or I.Q. Your stability doesn’t come through your dexterity with accounting. It turns out that investing your trust in the Lord – the good, sovereign king – is what will help you, will catch you, when trouble comes.

If your usual elements of stability are feeling shaken and you are feeling weak, insecure or unstable, it has or will happen to us all on this side of heaven. Yet, there is good news: When you put your trust in God, you can know with confidence that you are stronger than you have ever been. Though you may feel like a mouse, and maybe for the first time, you are as mighty as the God within you, and He is enormous.

Invite God into your life, into every area of your life. Invest your trust in Him. Lay all you have at His feet – your weakness, your fear, and insecurity. Tell Him you trust Him. Though it feels counterintuitive in this world that sold us “self-made,” you will see that you have never been stronger, more secure, more solid or more fulfilled than when you give it all up and surrender it to God.

When you surrender it all to Him, stripping yourself down from what the world offered, you are now open to supernatural strength, and supernatural trumps the very best you can attain on this earth in your prime. “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 12:10).

When you lay it all down – your strength, your intelligence, your success, your ego, your fear, your pride, you will decrease. And when you decrease, that creates room for God to increase within you, giving strength to every area of your life – spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Oh, guys, surrender it. Trade it all in. I promise, you are trading up! “The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him” (Nahum‬ ‭1:7). He is so, so good, and so, so near to those who trust Him.