Our Weakness

Jacob 4:7 Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things.

God shows us our weakness, not to punish us or make us feel inadequate, but to help us to be humble. Otherwise, we might never seek Him and recognize his dominion over us.

There are two ways to look at the idea of weakness. God shows to us our weaknesses such as selfishness, laziness, pride, greed. This can happen through personal experiences or perhaps in moments of contemplation or prayer. Maybe we hear comments in church meetings or conference, or read things in our scriptures and the Spirit whispers to us that we need to recognize that weakness and repent and change.

But I think Jacob is talking here of our shared Weakness (and notice that the word is singular), that of being mortal, of being human, of having a natural man as part of our nature. He's saying here that we can never be perfect, that we can never save ourselves. That's why we need God's grace and His condescension to come back to Him. That's why we need the atonement of Christ. We can't do it ourselves.