What causes me to feel helpless?

Nehemiah 5:5“We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy, and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.”

Lamentations 5:2-3Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed.

Circumstances beyond our control can make us feel helpless.

Psalm 10:10Their helpless victims are crushed; they fall beneath the strength of the wicked.

Psalm 107:12That is why he broke them with hard labor; they fell, and no one was there to help them.

Ecclesiastes 4:1Again, I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless.

Oppression can sap our hope.

Psalm 6:2Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.

Psalm 38:17I am on the verge of collapse, facing constant pain.

John 5:7“I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

Physical weaknesses can prevent us from doing what most other people can do, making us feel helpless and hopeless.

Ecclesiastes 4:10If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.

Being alone can lead to feelings of isolation and despair.

Psalm 69:2Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can’t find a foothold. I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm me.

As problems mount, we may feel overwhelmed, as though we are sinking deeper and deeper into our troubles.

Daniel 2:10-11The astrologers replied to the king, “No one on earth can tell the king his dream! And no king, however great and powerful, has ever asked such a thing of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer! The king’s demand is impossible. No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they do not live here among people.”

High expectations can make us feel as though we will never be able to please others.

Job 6:13“No, I am utterly helpless, without any chance of success.”

Job lost everything. Deep grief and loss can leave us feeling helpless and without hope.

Romans 7:18-19I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

Our sinful nature may make us doubt if we can ever please God.