I’m lying on the bench press with my max weight suspended over my chest. I get it half way up when I realise I have nothing left. I nod to my spotter. He looks at me and says, “Nope”. I start to panic, squirm and fight to get this weight up.

I asked my spotter later why he wouldn’t help. He looked at me and said, “because it is in that very moment that you grow the most. That is the only way you get stronger” Apparently he was helping me by not helping me. I thanked him and let him know that we are no longer friends.

God has given us loads of help: salvation, his Spirit, his Word, his church; everything we need. But there will be moments when God is not going to help you. God is trying to grow us and shape us into the image of his Son and that is a fight to the death against the flesh.

There will be times when you feel you have nothing left and you are exhausted with defeat. You will turn to God and wonder why he is not helping you. The reason it feels that way is because he wants you to endure hardness. He wants you to panic and squirm and strain. He wants you to stare the temptation the mistreatment and bad memories in the face and decide that you are going to do the hard thing.

And why does he do that? Because it is in that very moment that you grow. That is the only way you get stronger.

By the way, I got that weight up and it changed my life forever. Not really. I met my wife shortly after, forgot all about weightlifting and got really fat. But that’s not important.

What is important is that your fight is hard because he means for it to be. He wants you to endure hardness. Sometimes he is helping you by not helping you.

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 2 Timothy‬ ‭2:3‬