We all have weaknesses, but the ones we refuse to deal with: 

(a) draw us magnetically toward the wrong things 

(b) give Satan a foothold, which quickly becomes a stronghold 

(c) schedule tragedy down the line. Be warned: your weakness can emerge at any time, including your closing years! 

What you fail to master now will master you later. That’s why David prayed, ‘Cast me not off in…old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth’ (Psalm 71:9). The Holy Spirit will repeatedly convict you before your weakness destroys you! Jesus told Peter: ‘Satan has asked to have all of you, to sift you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to Me again, strengthen and build up your brothers’ (Luke 22:31-32 NLT). 

God will continue to use you even while your weakness is growing within you! That’s because He’s long-suffering and merciful. He provides opportunity after opportunity to reach for His help. Jesus warned Jerusalem, ‘…how often I have longed to gather your children together …but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate’ (Matthew 23:37-38 NIV). 

Think: when you repeatedly reject God’s mercy – what’s left? The inevitable consequences! ‘What can I do?’ you ask. Turn to God! He’s neither shocked by your weakness nor unwilling to help you. Confess your sin. Become an enemy to it. Ask the Holy Spirit to empower you. Not only can He deliver you, He can turn your greatest weakness into your greatest weapon!

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place....

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. "

(Many of the reflections on each page are used with the kind permission of United Christian Broadcastors (UCB) from their FREE daily devotional - The Word for Today. They allow the publication of 52 of their passages per year and I find their messages apt and though-provoking for the times we live in.)

A Circle of Prayer around the world praying for and with each other, for peace and for a world in crisis. Please read more about it and perhaps join us, prayer was never more needed than it is in these times!

Praying all year round for the souls of our deceased relatives and friends, for the souls of those most in need of prayer and for those souls in purgatory who have nobody to pray for them.