Episode 21. Welcoming the Fear of Being Weak

Weak and Inadequate

Alright raise your hand if you love feeling weak and inadequate? My guess is that you didn’t raise your hand

But I get it because I too don't want to feel or appear weak or needy. I want to be seen as strong. I bet you don’t want your weaknesses to overshadow your confidence or your strengths. 

Thoughts of Weakness

The most common thought processes I see when it comes to having weaknesses are:

• Having a weaknesses can somehow disqualify you from some future opportunity. 
• Others might lose  respect for you because you have a weakness.
• You might get labeled by your weaknesses rather than your strengths
• You fear  disappointing someone or yourself because you have a weakness
• You assume your weaknesses trump your strengths 
• Somehow because you have a weakness, your strengths are less than

Your Brain

You know what? This is because our brains are wired this way. Our brains are designed to default to notice what is going wrong rather than what is going right. So it takes a conscious effort to see the good or the strengths you have when your weakness comes to the forefront of your mind so easily.

Welcoming the Fear

Alright so we know why we fear feeling weak or inadequate by why in the heck do you want to welcome the fear of weaknesses. Well Weakness is actually a good thing according to the scriptures.

1 Corinthians 2:3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear 

God is literally with you when you are feeling fearful and weak. Who doesn’t want God to be with them more

Jacob 4:7  Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things.

It is in this state we GET to really know God. We get to know the power God can provide us to do anything we want to. 

Ether 12:27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

When has your weakness caused you to rely on God? Weaknesses help us NEED God. Without the feeling of weakness or inadequacy we would never feel a need to rely on God. We would always just do everything on our own. We would give ourselves the credit and never ask for help.

It is in the NEEDING God that we develop a relationship and a habit of relying on God. Also you recognize that God is the one helping you. Your job here on earth is not to come and figure out how to do everything on our own. Your job is to come experience a fallen world where we would not be adequate enough on our own to do what we are called to do

Calling Upon Power

Do you ever question sometimes why you are asked to do more than you think is possible for yourself? It’s because you are not supposed to do it alone. You are supposed to feel like you need superhuman powers to do it all. Then call upon those powers and rely on them.

Think about it, when have your strengths resulted in relying solely on yourself?

For example: if I was able to provide help to someone in a therapy session and the person thanked me for helping them. I have a couple choices I can continue helping people and thinking I am the one that is helping them or I can acknowledge the power that I was provided to help that person.

But I could get caught in the trap thinking I did that all on my own. Then stop praying for help and guidance when I am working. Then that would lead me to relying solely on my own talents and wisdom.

That might be Ok for a while. But then I would start to feel overwhelmed, burnt out and exhausted, because I am doing alone. So God sometimes shows us our weaknesses so we will humble ourselves and receive strength and wisdom beyond our own. Remembering that you have had hands laid on your head—that you have been given a gift  The Gift of the Holy Ghost helps you each day conquer your fears!

You just need to rely on him and ask and Draw on Christ’s strengthening powers daily through the Holy Ghost

Elder Uchtdorf “It is only through our striving and correcting and repenting and putting our efforts out there that we put our lives in God’s hands and feel the thrill of him working through us. It is only in this place that we are reliant on God enough to see the beauty only He can unfold.” 

Alright, how are you seeing the feeling of weakness now? Are you still scared of it or do you see how you are supposed to feel that way. That the feeling of weakness or inadequacy is what helps you get more strength. 

Skills to help

Now knowing what to do in the moment of feeling those fears and inadequacy to rely on God can be hard. Sometimes your thoughts spin out of control so fast you don’t even remember to rely on God.

If you are wanting to learn some tools on how to slow your mind down in the moment and rely on God you can see Weakness is a development opportunity with God

I have a mini course that will do just that.

It is a free course and I will put the link in the show notes here so you can try it out

The skills I teach in that course will help you to feel peace, confidence and faith moving forward WITH God.