Is Helplessness Good For Us?

I really hate being helpless. I think everyone does. Perhaps the hardest thing to bear in life, is a heartbreaking situation that is beyond a person's control. I have seen children taken from a disabled person by the state.

"Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long; and there shall be no might in thine hand. Deuteronomy 28:32"

I have known a vibrant, vigorous person, having been hit by a car; struggling to learn to cope with a body that no longer works.

"I become undignified ... humiliated in my own eyes. 2 Samuel 6:22a,c"

Incredible sorrows are in this world, because this is a world of sin.

I always wanted to fix things for people. My great desire was to make everyone happy. This probably stems from my childhood, when my mother was suffering from extreme depression. But as the years passed, I discovered, much to my dismay, that it was not possible to make everyone happy. In fact, it is not even possible to make one's own children happy all the time. It is a helpless and wretched feeling, to have one's own child stricken with grief.

* Be merciful to me, O LORD , for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. Psalm 31:9

There are times when I have had to sit back and just let God take control. That sounds so awful in writing! What was I thinking, that I was in control? Maybe that's what my mother meant when she taught me the verse "pride goeth before a fall." I never thought I was proud. Far from it. But what if I was? I thought I was working FOR God, but was I instead, taking over? A miserably humbling thought. Then along would come death, disease, stroke, or other anguish, and I would be reminded that I am a very small person indeed, with very little power to change things, no matter how much I long to.

* But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love. Psalm 33:18

Isn't it wonderful to know, that God, the all powerful, who keeps His people, and doesn't even sleep, but watches all the time, is in charge! He allows things to happen at times, that we will never understand on this earth. But we can know with certainty, that He works ALL things together for good, to those who love Him. The Bible says so. When we discover our own frailties and weaknesses, we are horrified. It is like falling off a roof. Then, in absolute helplessness, we are caught up by our loving Saviour, and collapse into His everlasting arms. When we know our own failures, His arms are where we can find peace, even in the darkest hour. The "peace that passeth understanding". If we never felt helpless, we would not experience that kind of peace, that is our saving grace. That peace can only be God-given. Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow.