Power In My Empty Hands
Empty hands receive endless strength when Jesus carries the weight.
Devotional Credit: Abide Above by Miles Stanford
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Miles Stanford points our eyes to a gracious pattern in the Father’s care. God is not out to crush faith. He cultivates it. Over time He shows us the limits of our own resources so that we rest in the sufficiency that is already ours in Jesus. When we are carried beyond our depth, we discover that our weakness is not a liability in the kingdom. It is the very place where His life meets us.
Stanford presses the difference between leaning partly on ourselves and leaning wholly on the Lord. The enemy loves to make people strong in the self-life, which can build empires and still leave the heart empty. Our Father makes His children honestly aware of their nothingness so that they may draw from His unfailing strength. It is a long lesson for most of us, but He considers no care too great to teach it because He loves us.
He also warns that faith withers when our hearts are detained by the visible. When our attention is captured by what we can see and manage, faith is obstructed. The life of abiding in Christ is centered in the risen Jesus, not in the ebb and flow of circumstances. Faith counts on the Word of God in union with the Son, apart from everything here that competes for our trust.
Through a corporate lens, this is not a call to grit. It is a call to draw from our shared life in the Lord. We are in Him, and He is in us. The Father aims to strengthen us with all power for cheerful endurance. As we consent to our weakness and rely on His indwelling life, we find that His power is perfectly suited to the exact places where we come up short.
Journal Entry - Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture
My child, I do not shame you for your weakness. I meet you there. My grace is sufficient, and My power is made perfect where your strength ends. I strengthen you with power in your inner being according to My riches, so that you live from the life of My Son who dwells in you.
You have been crucified with Christ, and you live to God in Him. Present yourself to Me as one alive from the dead, and I will express the life of Jesus in your mortal body. Not that you are sufficient of yourself to claim anything as from you, but your sufficiency is from Me. I give power to the faint, and I increase strength to those who have no might.
Fix your heart on the unseen. The visible is temporary, but what I speak endures. Draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. In every trial you have access to all that you need in Me. I supply all your need according to My riches in glory in Christ Jesus. My joy will be your strength, and My peace will guard your heart and mind as you abide in Me.
You are a vessel of clay so that the surpassing power may be seen as Mine and not yours. I chose what is weak in the world to display My wisdom and love. Stand firm in this grace. When you face what is beyond you, remember that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead gives life to your mortal body. I am faithful to establish you, to restore you, and to make you steadfast in every good work that I have prepared for you to walk in.
Scripture References: 2 Corinthians 12:9, Ephesians 3:16-17, Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:4-13, 2 Corinthians 3:5, Isaiah 40:29-31, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Hebrews 4:16, Philippians 4:19, Nehemiah 8:10, Philippians 4:7, 2 Corinthians 4:7, 1 Corinthians 1:27-31, Romans 5:2, Romans 8:11, 2 Thessalonians 3:3, 1 Peter 5:10, Ephesians 2:10.
Real-Life Analogy
Think of trying to move a heavy refrigerator with your bare hands. You push, strain, and it barely budges. Then a friend rolls over a sturdy furniture dolly. You tip the fridge onto the platform, and what was immovable begins to glide. Nothing about the fridge changed. What changed was the source bearing the weight. Your hands were never meant to carry it alone.
If a task today feels like that refrigerator, I will pause right there in the kitchen of real life and say, “Lord, I trust You to carry this through me right now.” A hard conversation, a lingering health limitation, or a workload that outgrows my capacity can rest on His strength while I simply yield and move at His pace.
Prayer of Confidence
Lord, I thank You that You have already given me every spiritual blessing in Jesus. Your grace is enough for today, and Your power is working in my weakness. I rejoice that I do not have to mix Your strength with my own. I gladly receive Your life within me as my sufficiency, my endurance, and my joy.