Are you in a season where your circumstances leave you feeling helpless? While some of the worst pain we experience can be what occurs to us, sometimes our deepest pain is witnessing trials inflicted on those we love and we are unable to relieve them from their suffering. Throughout my life I have witnessed countless family members and friends endure through long seasons of suffering, pain and heartache. How I desired to take some of the pain they were enduring and inflict some of that pain onto myself so they could find reprieve.
God had blessed me with a season of happiness, but during this time it left me with a nagging guilt that I didn’t deserve to be happy while those I loved were enduring through an endless debilitating season of suffering. Anxiety ignited into worries and “what-if’s” that didn’t provide relief. My thoughts ran rampant wishing of ways I could help, but still left me feeling powerless to aid their situation.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever experienced feeling helpless, either in your own circumstances, or with those you love, but it can cause you to feel useless and incompetent. Somehow when I feel helpless, it feels as though my anxious thoughts will help resolve the issues at hand. Anxiety has never solved my issues, in fact, it leaves my health harmed, perspective impaired and my mental state distant.
When difficult circumstances arise, anxiety thrives and can cause deep grief on our hearts. We want to fix the situation. We want to cure the pain. We want to erase the problems. While we may feel helpless to change circumstances or assist with easing the pain, we do have ability to pray over the situation. Prayer is a tool we can use no matter how powerless we feel to submit our worries and requests over to God. When we feel powerless, it is an evident reminder of what little control we do have.
We may not have control over much in our lives, but we do have control over how we react to our circumstances. When we feel helpless, prayer is an effective and powerful tool that can help more effectively than if we were capable. We like to make the determination of the outcome of our circumstances, but prayer is a submissive act of releasing that grip of power, helping us surrender our burdens to God.
Psalm 37:5
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
When times of intense anxiety and helplessness thrived, I held onto this truth: I don’t have any control over this situation, but I will surrender my control over to God’s hands to work through this. I know God is capable.
We may feel incapable. We may feel helpless to the circumstances appointed to us. We may feel powerless to the trials we go through, but we have a capable God. We may feel helpless, but our lack of control allows us to turn to God, giving us the ability to see His greatest work. Our lack of control, is in fact, helping in a more effective way than we could have imagined. When we allow God to step in and take the lead, we can see a greater work to be done (in our circumstances, and also in us) than if we “helped” the way we desired.
Isaiah 41:10
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
In Isaiah 41:10, “strengthen” in Hebrew means to “grow and develop,” this strengthening isn’t being strong or capable, but rather being grown and developed in character. At the end of this verse, God’s “right hand” symbolizes His power and strength.
God is using whatever circumstance that you are going through to appreciate His strength, not yours. God is aware of our weaknesses and knows just what we need to overcome our circumstances. If we need something, He will most certainly provide it. If we don’t have it, it must mean we do not need it in this season. God’s strength is manifested most evidently through our weakness.
Psalm 55:22
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
When you begin to feel discouraged due to your lack of helplessness, remember who is capable. God, who is allowing the circumstance, is in control. Seek God in prayer, submitting your burdens to Him to carry. When we rely on God for our strength and allow Him to take our worries, anxiety and circumstances, we can find relief in trying to fix things and know He is at work.
Use this time of helplessness as a time of growing in your true surrender of what you value over to God. You’ll find that when you truly hand over the things most weighing on your heart, you will find reprieve from that burden that’s been weighing you down. God is capable. God is in control. God is at work. God is helping.