I’m Weak but I Won’t Give Up | Holy Spirit, Stay With Me

• You know, I can feel it in this room tonight. It’s not something you can see with your eyes. Not something you can put your finger on, but it’s as real as the air we breathe. It’s a sense of weariness, a quiet ache. It’s the weight that settles on a soul that has been trying and trying and trying again.
• And perhaps you came in here tonight carrying that weight. And you’ve been sitting there holding it together, putting on a brave face. But inside, oh, inside, you’re whispering to the Lord, I don’t know how much longer I can do this. And I want to look you right in the eye tonight and tell you something. That very feeling, that overwhelming sense of your own limitation.
• That is not your failure. That is not your defeat. That, my friend, is the most blessed place you can ever be. It is the starting line for a miracle. Because you see, God can do nothing for the man or the woman who is still convinced of their own strength. He stands by waiting while we wear ourselves out trying to prove we can handle it.
• But the moment, the glorious moment when you come to the end of yourself, when the last ounce of your own willpower has been exhausted, that is the moment when his power can truly begin. We want to start this journey with an honest admission. And I know it’s the hardest thing in the world for some of us to do.
• We’re taught to be strong, to be resilient, to never let them see you sweat. We build these facads, these careful presentations of having it all together. We smile on Sunday and we weep on Monday and we think nobody knows, but God knows. And deep down, you know, and that internal conflict, that gap between the image we project and the weakness we feel, it creates a loneliness that is absolutely terrifying.