It Starts Small

We are coming to what I feel is a close in exploring the reasons why we do not finish what we start. Why we lose our enthusiasm for the commitments we have made, the goals we have set, and work we are doing. We have explored a shift in our focus, frustrations, disappointments, and discipline. The last key to understanding our failure to finish, I believe is strength.

The world’s philosophy tells us that we have the strength to do anything we want inside of us. God’s authoritative Word says the opposite. When we operate within our own strength we are met with certain doom. I have often find myself believing the Word, but unsure how I am supposed to receive something by God or act upon it. It’s that…what does it mean??? statement. God is my strength. I believe it, but what does that mean? Let us spend a few moments today exploring that topic.

Many of us think of strength as a physical attribute. I envision a bodybuilder. Someone who can lift an enormous amount of weight. God’s Word tells us the strength our Heavenly Father gives us, reassures, comforts, and keeps us motivated as we navigate the discipleship journey. God gives us a spiritual strength to act effectively, whether physically, morally, or intellectually. The strongest is not always the most effective, unless they convert their strength into doing right out of love and obedience for the Lord.

Our lives are full of challenges. It gets old to hear, but we always have to remember, God never promised a trouble free life. He, however, promises that when we seek Him with all our heart, mind, and soul, He will give us everything we need to be victorious. Without strength, we wander away from our faith. We all need strength to follow Christ. In turn, Christ leads us to our Heavenly Father who fills us with the strength to follow. See that circular pattern?

Christ needed the strength of His Heavenly Father to complete the mission He was sent to fulfill. In Luke, we read:

⁴³ Then an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. Luke 22:43

Just as Jesus asked His Father to fill Him, we need to seek our Heavenly Father to strengthen us. We are told to take up our cross, and we need the same strength Christ received when he carried His cross. We need His strength to overcome daily challenges and seasons of change in our lives.

My own Strength – the Problem

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own understanding;
Proverbs 3:5

THe shift in our focus, the frustrations and disappointments, and lack of self control all leads us to doing the exact opposite of this verse. We begin to rely on ourselves. We think we know better than God and we start doing things our own way. We begin to think we know what is best and better ways to go about accomplishing what we set out to do. What could go wrong?

His ways are perfect – we are flawed

³⁰ God—his way is perfect;
the word of the Lord is pure.
He is a shield to all who take refuge in him.
Psalm 18:30

¹² There is a way that seems right to a person,
but its end is the way to death.
Proverbs 14:12

His heart is pure and righteous – we are deceptive and wicked

¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and faithful in all his acts.
Psalm 145:17

⁹ The heart is more deceitful than anything else,
and incurable—who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9

His ways do not change – our heart can change

God is not a man, that he might lie,
or a son of man, that he might change his mind.
Does he speak and not act,
or promise and not fulfill?
Numbers 23:19

God sees with an eternal perspective – we see day to day

² Before the mountains were born,
before you gave birth to the earth and the world,
from eternity to eternity, you are God.
Psalm 90:2

¹⁶ Your eyes saw me when I was formless;
all my days were written in your book and planned
before a single one of them began.
Psalm 139:16

¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

Sadly, even with the best of intentions, when we try to do things in our own strength, we are declaring we are god and going to do things our own way and in our own strength, and we wind up completely exhausted and lose the enthusiasm we once had. It started with a shift in focus, and ends with us sitting on a rock, in the middle of a desert, feeling alone, defeated and exhausted. We throw our hands up to God and get angry because we just know we are doing what we are supposed to, so why is nothing working?

Because:

²⁶ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

The Strength we Need – How do we get it?

How do we get this strength from God? Follow me on this trail:

¹³ because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13

So if I want strength I am going to have to do some sin killing in my life, but How? By the Holy Spirit….but how?

¹² Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. ¹³ For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.

So we need to work, but it is not our work, rather His work for His will and His purpose. How do we experience that?

¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 1 Corinthians 15:10

Paul worked hard, but his effort was not his. How did he work?

²⁹ I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me. Colossians 1:29

His effort was in Christ’s strength. We toil. We struggle. We expend effort and energy. But there is a way to do it so that it is God’s energy and God’s doing. How do we do that?

¹¹ If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:11

We serve. We exert strength. But there is a way that our serving is the effect of God’s gracious power. What is that way?

ask.

It can not be that simple, can it? Really, really, it is that simple.

Look, when God empowers you with His strength, you can not explain it. When you shift your focus back on Him, throw complete honesty to Him that you are frustrated and disappointed, and confess you lack discipline, that you are doing it your way, something happens. As you begin to remember His promises and you put trust in His ways, something changes. As you seek and ask Him for help, His promises prevail. You wake each day, in the same mess, but somehow there is praise and worship pouring out of your heart. There is a strength from within that can not be described.

I wake up every morning in the same place I have been for more than a year and half. Nothing has changed. The situation is the same. The evil that holds life captive is still holding it. The ruin and ash is still surrounding me. The difference from now and a year and a half ago, is waking each day, renewed by God’s strength and enthusiasm to put my feet in deep waters of faith and trust. I end each day praying for rest, not to sleep, but rest to be renewed in His strength to keep raising His banner each day and marching for His will and purpose. To not lean on myself or rely on myself, but on Him.

If you have found yourself at a dead stop. In deep frustration and disappointment. Weary. Lost. Miserable. Seek Him out.

Admit: you lost focus and are doing things your own way
Pray: in pure honesty, tell God your frustrated and disappointed. Ask for His help expectantly, knowing and trusting He is going to help you.
Trust: look back over the promises of God and take that step of faith and trust in His Word. He does not lie, and he will not withhold His promises to a true repentant Christian.
Act: Believe you are acting in His acting.
Thanksgiving: Thank God

The key to asking is trusting. You have to wholeheartedly believe and trust in God’s promises. We tend to admit, pray, and then jump into acting and we repeat this cycle of becoming weary over and over again or our frustration and disappointment increases because we feel like God is not doing anything. If we do not trust the source of all goodness and faithfulness, then we will not receive what we ask for.

In light of where you are today, what is the Holy Spirit calling you to do? Is it a focus change? Perhaps, coming to your Heavenly Father and just being honest. Maybe He is calling you to give up something that stands in the way and stumbles you. Are you acting in your own way and power? Seek your Heavenly Father, he will not fail you. Just ask.