You’ll never get control of your thoughts, let alone your careless words. You can’t prevent losing your temper – you’re only human! Why try? You can’t be a good parent all the time! Everyone makes mistakes. You gave it your best effort, but you’ll never break your addiction. You just can’t. How many times have you promised God now… only to break your word in a time of weakness.
So… wait, is this it? Am I really supposed to… give up? Somebody HELP!
Look up! Smile! It’s not the end. No, brothers and sisters, this… this is the beginning. You’ve arrived at the first half of the equation – you cannot be holy, pure, and Godly – you cannot… on your own.
We need God. We must depend on Him, and rely on Him as our source of power and the mode of success in the process of becoming more like Jesus Christ. God knows that you have no ability within yourself to be holy. This is why we must give up on trying to do life on our own. Jesus said anyone who wants to follow Him must, “deny himself”. Jesus also illustrated this submission as letting your “self” die. Your self – everything that is independent of God – DEAD. Sure, dead things don’t get things done… but they tend to stay out of the way. And in this case – that’s a good thing.
The power necessary to achieve holy living is given freely from God – and is something we don’t deserve. We call this grace. And, we’ve been given more than we could ever need. “My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” [2 Corinthians 12:9]
Consider this: God could take all the pain and difficulty out of our lives, if He thought it best. So, why does He allow us to experience all the challenges of life? We need to be constantly reminded of the impossibility of winning on our own, and the impossibility of God ever losing. He tells us, “You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” [John 16:33] Stop whining, and start relying. The suffering we face is real, but Jesus Christ says that He has already accomplished victory.
We can claim for ourselves what the apostle Paul said,
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." [Galations 2:20]
Give up. Stop living. Let self die. Submit. Let Jesus live through you.
Try. Succeed.
Image: Help me out of this darkness by Carly Faust
