At the point where you give up is often when God shows up.

You meet God when you come to the end of your resources. When you’ve done all you can do, when you’re at the end of what you can do. When you’re resources are spent. That’s when God shows up. At the point where you give up is often when God shows up.

The disciples had been fishing all night. Simon Peter was certainly at the end of his resources. He had boasted that if everyone else left Jesus, he would still be faithful, but he wasn’t. He had failed. He played the coward. He fell when he boasted he would stand. He failed Jesus. When he first met Jesus he was very aware of his sinful heart. The Bible says, “Simon Peter fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’” (Luke 5:8).

When Peter stood warming himself after the arrest of Jesus in the courtyard, it was there that Peter denied the Lord and saw Jesus look at him as the cock crowed. Peter realized that he was at the end of his resources. He knew now that there was nothing good left in him. If anything good was going to come out of him it had to be through Jesus. It was good for him to give up thinking that he was someone special and realize that he could fail like everyone else, because that is when he really began to understand his weakness, the forgiveness of God and the power of a new life. It was in his brokenness that he experienced Jesus in a new way.

It is good to come to the end of your resources and realize your weakness, so that you give in to God. It’s when you just turn the control completely over to him, and you forget about personal success. You realize you can’t do anything on your own anyway, so you ask Him to completely take over, and determine that you will do whatever it is He wants you to do. You stop trying to make things happen and let him have His way. And, amazingly, that is when things begin to happen. When you come to the end of you, you come to the beginning of God. When you come to the end of what you can do, that is when you are ready to see what God can do.

When everything you have tried in life turns out to be nothing, He can make something out of it. He gives health where there was only sickness. He gives strength when there was only weakness. He gives life where there was only death. He gives hope where there was only despair. He gives forgiveness where there was only shame. When you reach the end of yourself, you come to the beginning of Jesus.