When Trying Harder Fails

What happens to you when you’ve tried harder, but you keep coming up short? How do you handle that? What do you do?

Sometimes, we all just get tired. Or maybe you're worn out from trying to be a better person, a better spouse, a better parent, or just trying to hold it all together.

In those moments, the world often says, “Just try harder. Push through. Pull yourself up by the bootstraps.” But what happens when you’ve got nothing left? When the straps break and you can’t pull yourself up anymore?

The Apostle Paul said something once that might seem as if doesn’t fit this scenario, but it honestly hits the nail on the head. He said:

“The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself - that it begins and ends with faith. As the Scripture says, ‘But those who are right with God will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17 NCV)

This faith depends on Jesus Christ to save us. And it’s this same faith that helps us when we feel defeated.

I think this verse says “we weren’t made to live by effort alone.” We were made to live by faith. Efforts doesn’t save us - Christ does.

And this same faith doesn’t mean we stop trying or become lazy after we are saved. It means we stop relying on ourselves as the solution. We start trusting God in the struggle.

We start praying more than we push. We depend more than we perform.

When we struggle, we tend to double down and push harder. But there comes a point when our strength runs out. That moment that we should actually surrender and stop pretending we can do it.

And it’s in surrender that the “real us” is revealed. It’s the place where we truly give up and give in to God. And that’s where God does His best work. That’s when you begin to see what only God can do.

Psalm 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him, and he helps me.”

“God gives strength to those who are tired and more power to those who are weak.” (Isaiah 40:29 NCV) A divine exchange happens when we bring Him our exhaustion and pick up His grace.

The Psalmist said: “The Lord hears good people when they cry out to him, and he saves them from all their troubles.” (Psalm 34:17 NCV)

You don’t have to have it all together. You don’t have to be strong. You just have to be honest. Let your surrender invite God’s power. Let your faith open the door for God and the Holy Spirit meet you in the hard place.

So if you’re tired, don’t quit. But don’t fake it either. Surrender. You surrendered yourself for salvation. Now, surrender in your struggle.

That’s where you’ll find strength you didn’t know you had. That’s where you’ll see the supernatural element of God Almighty show up in your very real, very messy, very human life.

That’s what living by faith really means.

GOD, we really should come to you more in prayer. We should confess our weakness easily because you already know. I suppose you are just watching and thinking “Why not just call on me? - I can help … “. So we pray now - “Here I am - please help me.” IJNIP amen ♥️