Finding Strength in Christ: When You Feel Like You Can’t
There are two words most of us have said more times than we probably realize:
“I can’t.”
I can’t forgive them.
I can’t overcome this.
I can’t serve there.
I can’t change.
I can’t do what God is asking me to do.
Sometimes those words come after we’ve tried and failed. Sometimes they’re rooted in fear. Sometimes we’re painfully aware of our own limitations. And sometimes we’ve heard those words about ourselves for so long that we’ve stopped questioning whether they’re actually true.
Philippians 4:13 says:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
That verse doesn’t tell us that we’re capable of everything by ourselves.
It tells us where our strength comes from.
And that distinction changes everything.
The Voice That Says You Can’t
Throughout Scripture, we see people confronted by God with assignments that immediately exposed their weaknesses.
When God called Moses to speak before Pharaoh, Moses focused on his inability to speak.
Gideon looked at his family and circumstances and saw weakness.
Jeremiah looked at his age and believed he was too young.
The details changed, but the response was remarkably similar:
I can’t.
We do the same thing.
Maybe yours is forgiveness.
“I can’t forgive them after what they did.”
Maybe it’s sharing your faith.
“I wouldn’t know what to say.”
Maybe you’ve been trying to change something in your life for years and every failed attempt seems to provide more evidence that you’ll never be free.
Or perhaps you sense God calling you toward something but can’t get beyond one question:
Why would He use me?
Fear has a way of magnifying our weaknesses until they begin to look larger than God’s strength.
Eventually, we can believe our failures more than His promises.
God Doesn’t Pretend You’re Strong Enough
Here’s what I love about the way God responds to people in Scripture:
He doesn’t have to pretend their weaknesses don’t exist.
God didn’t convince Moses that he had secretly been an incredible public speaker the entire time.
He told Moses He would help him speak.
God’s answer to human weakness isn’t always to make us feel naturally capable.
His answer is His presence.
Philippians 4:13 doesn’t say, “I can do all things because I’m strong.”
The strength comes through Christ.
That means admitting “I can’t do this by myself” may actually be closer to faith than pretending we have everything under control.
God doesn’t deny our weakness.
He demonstrates that He is greater than it.
Your Inability Can Become His Opportunity
David faced Goliath.
Peter failed repeatedly before becoming one of the most visible voices in the early church.
Mary was called into circumstances she could never have produced or controlled herself.
Again and again, Scripture shows God working through people who were very aware of their limitations.
That’s why one of the most important lines from this message is simple:
Your inability is his opportunity. Your weakness is the stage for his strength.
Maybe you’ve been treating weakness as proof that God couldn’t use you.
What if your weakness is actually the place where dependence on Him becomes unavoidable?
That doesn’t mean weakness itself is good.
It means weakness doesn’t get the final word.
From “I Can’t” to “He Did”
There’s another part of this that matters.
The purpose of depending on Christ isn’t eventually being able to say, “Look what I accomplished.”
When God works through weakness, something else becomes possible.
People notice.
Think about Peter.
Before the crucifixion, Peter failed spectacularly. He denied Jesus three times.
But after Pentecost, Peter stood publicly and preached Christ boldly.
That transformation wasn’t supposed to make people marvel at how impressive Peter had become.
It pointed to what God had done.
That’s what testimony is.
People look at a life that should have remained trapped, bitter, afraid, ashamed, or disqualified and realize something happened that cannot be explained by human strength alone.
Someone forgives when bitterness would have been easier.
Someone finally walks in freedom.
Someone says yes to a calling they once ran from.
Someone speaks when fear always kept them quiet.
Eventually, “I can’t” becomes:
“He did.”
As I said in the sermon:
“The point is not to impress people with you, but to amaze them with him.”
What “I Can’t” Are You Carrying?
That question matters more than understanding the principle intellectually.
What’s yours?
Is it forgiveness?
Fear?
A calling you’ve been running from because you don’t believe you’re qualified?
Something you’ve been trying to break free from?
A relationship that feels impossible?
Maybe you’ve been carrying that “I can’t” for so long that it has become part of how you describe yourself.
But surrender requires something more than talking about giving it to God.
Sometimes we pray, hand something to Him, and then immediately start taking it back.
We surrender the situation and then resume trying to control every outcome.
We give Him the fear and then pick it back up.
We give Him our calling and then return to calculating every reason we’re incapable.
At some point, surrender means leaving it there.
You Were Never Supposed to Do It Alone
The message of Philippians 4:13 isn’t that Christians become endlessly capable people.
It’s that our strength has a source.
Christ.
There will be things you cannot do through willpower alone.
There will be places where your natural ability reaches its limit.
There will be assignments that expose everything you don’t have.
But your limitation doesn’t automatically determine what God can do through a surrendered life.
So ask yourself:
What “I can’t” have I allowed to become the final word?
And what would it look like to give that limitation to Jesus instead?
Because every place where we’re finally willing to admit we cannot do it ourselves becomes an opportunity to discover again where our strength actually comes from.
Key Takeaway
Your weakness doesn’t have to become the end of the story.
When “I can’t” is surrendered to Christ, the goal isn’t eventually proving how capable you were.
It’s allowing your life to point toward what God did.
Reflection Questions
- What “I can’t” have you been carrying most heavily lately?
- Is that belief based on something God has said, or on fear, failure, insecurity, or previous experience?
- Where are you trying to accomplish something through your own strength instead of depending on Christ?
- Have you surrendered something to God only to repeatedly pick it back up?
- If God worked through this area of weakness, how could the eventual testimony point people toward Him rather than toward you?
This message was preached from Philippians 4:13 at St. Paul’s Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Watch or listen to the complete sermon, From “I Can’t” to “I Can in Christ,” for the full message.
