🌄 Failing Forward – Day 3 When You Feel Stuck in the Same Sins

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Scripture

2 Corinthians 12:9 —
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Devotional

Few things discourage a believer more than battling the same struggle over and over. Whether it’s impatience, fear, habits you don’t want, or reactions you wish you could change, these patterns can make you wonder:

“Why am I not over this yet?”
“Is something wrong with me spiritually?”

But repeated battles do not mean you’re spiritually failing. They mean you’re human — and that you’re engaged in a real fight.

Even Paul, a spiritual giant, asked God three times to remove his weakness. God didn’t remove it. Instead, He revealed a deeper truth:

Strength isn’t found in what you overcome.
It’s found in who you rely on.

Sometimes the very battle you wish would disappear is the place where God is teaching you to:

• depend on Him daily

• soften your heart

• return to Him again and again

• experience grace, not shame

• grow in compassion for others

If God instantly removed every struggle, you might feel victorious — but you wouldn’t necessarily become more like Jesus.

Your struggle is not a sign of spiritual failure.
It is a classroom for grace.

Reflection Question

What repeated struggle makes you doubt your growth, and how might God be using it to deepen reliance on Him?

Journal Prompt

Write about a sin or habit you feel “stuck” in.
Then write a second paragraph exploring how God might work through this weakness rather than in spite of it.