I can do it myself

“I can do it myself!” said Ego.

Last week, I worked at my church’s equivalent to Vacation Bible School called EKWIP camp, which stands for Equipping Kids With Individual Purpose. It was an amazing week, and a great way to get to know more people in my new church. Coming together with my church family to provide a fun-filled week for the kids made my new church feel like home.

One of the things I was blessed to be a part of was the drama team. Casey’s brother wrote a script that spanned the week of camp, and I was the old actor as everyone else was a teenager.

The main character’s name was Ego. The gist of the week’s story was that Ego, a mechanic who worked for the bad guy, had come to the Master Mechanic (the good guys) shop as he tried to fix his boss’s broken car. When Grace, the owner of the shop, offered to help him fix it, he refused her help. “I can do it myself,” Ego said a thousand times during the week. He would not ask for Grace to help him.

Oh, how I know that line all too well. “I can do it myself.” When I was stumbling along through some tough stuff, I would pray and ask God for help. But ultimately, I didn’t think it was stuff God would fix for me--I thought I had to fix it on my own. I was the one who had gotten myself into this mess. I had to fix it myself.

Months after trying to deal with everything by myself, I admitted to God that I was so broken. I needed Him to put the pieces of my heart and my life back together again, because I couldn’t do it by myself. It was a hard thing to admit, because it made me feel like I hadn’t been strong enough. It required humility, which just made me feel even more broken.

God had been there the whole time. His hand had been in my situation even before I realized the mess I was in. He hadn’t forsaken me, even when I didn’t want His help. But when I called on grace, He gave it to me. I sure didn’t deserve it.

It’s easy to believe we don’t deserve grace. That we are too broken. That we’ve messed up too much. But Jesus says,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

When we are stumbling along in life through our weakness, God’s strength is made perfect in us. Paul even said:

“So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 

2 Corinthians 12:9

At the end of the drama, Ego learned that there was nothing wrong for asking for help when he needed it. There was no shame in needing Grace’s help. All he had to do was ask.

Asking for grace may sometimes feel like a moment of weakness, but you can rest assured that through grace, your weakness is made strong. We all need grace, and it is a gift that God gives freely.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift...
Romans 3:23-24

Do you need grace? Don’t be ashamed or afraid to ask for it. God wants to give you grace. All you have to do is ask.