Powerless Is More

Don't over-reach your grasp.  Don't let your mouth overload your back.  Pick your battles carefully.  Don't start something you can't finish.  You've probably heard one or all of these warnings, warnings cautioning you not to attempt something you don't have the power or resources to accomplish.  The warnings sound reasonable; they seem to be very sound counsel indeed.  But are they really?

That depends on from where you draw your strength and resources.  If you are depending on your own might to lift a rock, you are limited to a particular size and weight.  But what if you were depending on a front loader someone loaned you?  Your personal ability to lift that rock becomes a mute point and need not be considered at all.  If I was dependent on my personal resources to buy a house, it would have to be a lean-to or a shack at best.  However, if I am depending on a bank for the money, my choices increase dramatically.  What if I were being underwritten by the World Bank at 0% interest and payment adjusted automatically to my income?  Now my choices are virtually unlimited.

While we tend to seek a life that is safe and dependable - a life neatly configured to the size of our ability to control, life is seldom like that.  Life is filled with hurdles and barriers that test our mettle and stretch the limits of our control.  And sometimes, it spins out of control altogether.  At least, it eclipses our ability to control it, giving rise to anxiety and fear.  If, we are dependent on our own power, resources and abilities.  But not if we trust in a Higher Power than self, not if we trust in the Living God.  If He is the source of our power and ability, what exactly is too big to handle?

When we think we are the source of our power, we are limited.  But when we know that we are powerless and therefore depend on God, we can do so much "more than we can ask or imagine according to his power at work within us" (Eph 3:20).  And, that is exactly how were are encouraged to live as children of God.  As the prophet Zechariah wrote millenia ago, "'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit ,’ says the Lord Almighty" (4:6).

Following the Lord is not necessarily easy or safe.  In fact, it can often be anything but.  And yet, we can be sure that He will easily accoplish His will through our obedience and safely bring us to glory in the end.  The power to live the limitless life is not in our strength but in our weakness.  As Paul wrote, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9).  Powerless in self is more in God.  Jus' Sayn.