Many people consider a lack of self-confidence a weakness, but it can actually be a good thing if it makes us depend more on Jesus. We always come out ahead when we depend on the Lord and turn to Him for the answers we need, because He’s a lot wiser and “stronger” than we could ever be on our own.

That’s the true strength of weakness—knowing that you need Him, that you need to turn to Him for the answers, and then doing that. You’re weak in yourself in that you don’t automatically feel like you know the answers or understand the situation or rely on your own ideas, but instead pray and ask Jesus. Your first reaction should always be to pray about things.

It’s good “weakness” when, even if you know what to do or think you do, you still ask Jesus about it and follow His lead, which may differ from your initial thought or plan. It’s good because then you’re letting the Lord work through you and perform His will. You’re letting Him have control. You’re letting Him make the decisions and do things His way, and that’s when He is able to turn your weakness into a strength.

You’ll never go wrong by continually turning to Him in prayer. The more you ask Him about things, the more He can work through you. The more you feel incapable in yourself, the more you realize that you don’t know what to do and turn to Him for the answers, the better off you’ll be.

There’s nothing wrong with feeling incapable if it causes you to run to Jesus in prayer. That’s not a weakness; that’s really your greatest strength, because He’ll always be there to lead and guide you. Those are good feelings to have because they keep you desperate and in need of Jesus, and that’s exactly the way He wants you to be. He uses those feelings to keep you coming back to Him time after time, so that He can continue to bless you and work through you. He does it for your own good, as well as for the good of others who He knows will be affected by your choices and decisions. Just because you might feel incapable and insufficient doesn’t mean that you really are, as long as you keep turning to Him.

The only problem you might have with feeling incapable and weak in yourself is if, after you’ve gone to Jesus and prayed and heard from Him, for whatever reason, you don’t follow through and implement what He told you to do. Maybe you aren’t sure that you got your signals from Him straight, or maybe you don’t see how His answer could be true or possible, or maybe you think it’s going to be too hard, so you put off doing it. But you need to have the faith that it’s really Him speaking to you, that He knows what’s good and right, and you simply need to obey and carry through with what He’s shown you. You may not get it right every time, especially in the beginning, but the more you get in the habit of asking Him for His guidance, answers, and solutions, the easier it will become, the clearer you will hear Him speak, and the more often you will get it right.

If you lack the faith you need to get started, He can help you with that, too. If you don’t see how you can do what He’s asked you to do, ask Him to show you how. If you think it’s going to be too hard, ask Him to help you take the first step. As you obey and take each little step for Him, He’ll take bigger steps for you and help you to make progress. He won’t fail to keep His word to you.

Ask Him about whatever specific situation you need help in. That’s using your weakness and tapping in to Jesus’ power. But after you’ve received some direction and guidance from Him, if you don’t do anything with it, if you don’t try to apply it and act upon it in some way, then you forfeit the benefit of being able to tap into His strength and you’re left with your weakness. Your natural weaknesses will have become more of a hindrance than a help because you didn’t accept the Lord’s help after He offered it. We all do that sometimes. Nobody’s perfect and He doesn’t expect us to be, but most of us can do a lot better in this regard of asking Him about the problems we face and the decisions we make, big and small.

It’s a three-step process. We have to remember to ask, first of all, and believe what He tells us and grab on to it, and then we have to follow through and do it.