Compensating for Weakness

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the LORD.’” (Jeremiah 17:5 NLT)

A few years ago, I had a lower back injury that immobilized me for about a week. As part of my physical therapy, I was prescribed several different exercises for my hip flexors. I thought my injury was a result of weak muscles in my back, but that was not the case. It turns out that because of my tight hip flexors, I was compensating by overusing other muscles. Instead of gaining strength, my compensation merely led to more weakness.

When we rely on human strength instead of God’s power, we are setting ourselves up for injury. In our attempt to counterbalance insecurity, we sometimes lean heavily on whatever we can control. God is set aside in favor of flexing our own muscles. We imagine our compensatory behavior will make us tougher. We may get better at coping with weakness, but that doesn’t make us stronger. The more we trust in human capacity, the less we turn to God. The result is brokenness.