God loves it when you realize you're helpless.
Then, you have no where to go but him. And that's when you find yourself giving up and letting him take over. At least, you're wise if you do.
Catherine Marshall, author of Adventures in Prayer, calls this "the prayer of helplessness".
She points to times in her life when she felt helpless, her plans going nowhere. I have gone through times like that, too. And I'm sure everyone has.
"My most spectacular answers to prayers have come when I was so helpless, so out of control as to be able to do nothing at all for myself," writes Marshall.
As a young widow, she wrote a book about her husband - Peter Marshall - who had been pastor of a major church in Washington and chaplain to the U.S. Senate. Someone who knew Catherine and her husband was highly critical of her manuscript and said she missed the real Peter Marshall entirely.
She was devastated and wept. She knew he was right.
"In my helplessness, there was no alternative but to put the project in God's hands. I prayed that A Man Called Peter be His book, and that the results be all His, too."
That book touched my life as a young believer and the lives of millions more. Many told her that the book about the humble young Scot influenced them to enter the Christian ministry. It was eventually made into a film.
As Marshall notes, Jesus told us long ago why it is so important for us to recognize that we are helpless without God. In John 15:5, Jesus says: "Apart from me you can do nothing."
We may think we are doing great things, but our work is worthless in God's eyes if we are doing it without him.
But when we do give up trying to get our own way, says Marshall, we are ready to rely on a power that is far greater, far wiser than we are. As Jesus said: "With God, all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)
Marshall recommends three steps to the "prayer of helplessness":
As I think about this, I realize how much time I waste trying to do things my way and fretting about it when things don't go as I believe they should.Then, you have no where to go but him. And that's when you find yourself giving up and letting him take over. At least, you're wise if you do.
Catherine Marshall, author of Adventures in Prayer, calls this "the prayer of helplessness".
She points to times in her life when she felt helpless, her plans going nowhere. I have gone through times like that, too. And I'm sure everyone has.
"My most spectacular answers to prayers have come when I was so helpless, so out of control as to be able to do nothing at all for myself," writes Marshall.
As a young widow, she wrote a book about her husband - Peter Marshall - who had been pastor of a major church in Washington and chaplain to the U.S. Senate. Someone who knew Catherine and her husband was highly critical of her manuscript and said she missed the real Peter Marshall entirely.
She was devastated and wept. She knew he was right.
"In my helplessness, there was no alternative but to put the project in God's hands. I prayed that A Man Called Peter be His book, and that the results be all His, too."
That book touched my life as a young believer and the lives of millions more. Many told her that the book about the humble young Scot influenced them to enter the Christian ministry. It was eventually made into a film.
As Marshall notes, Jesus told us long ago why it is so important for us to recognize that we are helpless without God. In John 15:5, Jesus says: "Apart from me you can do nothing."
We may think we are doing great things, but our work is worthless in God's eyes if we are doing it without him.
But when we do give up trying to get our own way, says Marshall, we are ready to rely on a power that is far greater, far wiser than we are. As Jesus said: "With God, all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)
Marshall recommends three steps to the "prayer of helplessness":
- Be honest with God and admit that you are helpless. Ask him to make you feel that truth at an emotional level if that's what he wishes. Your emotions need to be touched if your surrender is to be real;
- Take your heart's desire to God. Believe that he can do what you cannot do. Thank him for what he is doing; and
- Watch for doors opening. When the right door opens, you will have quiet assurance that it is God's work.
I can almost hear the Lord say: "I have good things for you. Just let me take over."
It's good when I know I'm helpless.
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