Apart from God I Can Do Nothing

My Strength vs. God’s Strength

Somewhere between holding on and controlling things with my strength and letting go and coming to the end of my strength is where God moves.

He is strong when we can’t do it. He is strong when we think we can, because without Him, on our own, we can do nothing.

It’s not a paradox but a truth that exists across the board. Not that me being strong makes Him any less, but that in my weakness He is strong in my acknowledgment of Him. He is strong anyway, but admitting my weakness glorifies Him.

How? I acknowledge I cannot do anything apart from Him, and He shines through. His strength appears and works in its holy power. I get out of His way and He shows me the way.

I watch Him and how He is working, and follow and join in. He is making His mission clear and I need to observe that, notice where He is working. I need to discern where He is and help Him. Anything else is a waste of time and energy and missing the mark – sin.

So then, where is He at work?

• He is in the quiet hours of the early morning.
• He is in the love and kindness toward a neighbor.
• He is working in the community to help the poor and needy.
• He is giving Himself away – in His spirit’s presence, in His abilities and supernatural gifts/powers, and in His resources of time, money, food, and things.
• He is always there in the midst of the brokenhearted, comforting and consoling.
• He is working at reconciling his children to one another.
• He is working at creating and making all things new.
• He is rebirthing life in the spirit and moving like the wind.
• He is sharing tender, valuable words of wisdom and humor to lighten this load.
• He is mourning with those who mourn, rejoicing with the truth.
• He is correcting, realigning and disciplining his children.
• He is administering justice and mercy. He is opening doors and closing doors.
• He is seeking out the one lost lamb.
• He is giving provisions to his children.
• He is making a way for his kingdom to come and will be done.

All these things are ways God is working and I must be attentive to the spirit’s prompting to see through the enlightened eyes of my heart where He wants me to be today.

I need His direction to know whether to go to the right or left. I need His peace to assure myself of the way He is leading. And I need His joy to do whatever He asks of me, obeying His commands out of love and devotion.

Are you listening and looking for where and how God is working in your life today? Are you cultivating the relationship with the Father, following the Son’s example by watching the Father and joining Him in His work?

We may be the weakest member of the body. But God is strong and wants us to look up to Him for help.

Then can we observe where He is working and exhibit trust and faith in His leading.

Then can we watch and witness His power and work.

Then can we be fully alive, delighting in cultivating our relationship with Him.

From Scripture

John 5:19 “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.’”

2 Corinthians 12:10 “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Today’s Prayer

Father, forgive me for trying to do things in my own strength apart from You. Help me to be attentive and notice where You are at work today, and to follow You in that work. Strengthen the work You enable me to do in You. In Jesus’s name, amen.