PLEASING GOD THROUGH HIS POWER ALONE
Concerning the way that God wants us to live, there is no question that he desires that Christ be found in us. We cannot live according to the world if we are to be blessed or accepted by Christ. We are living in the Spirit if we are pleasing God and if we are accepted by God. But we cannot think for one moment that these are things that we can do ourselves. Only God can cause these things to happen with us.
We are not accustomed to depending on anyone other than ourselves. We are taught form the time we are very small that we have no one to depend on but us. “If it is to be, it is up to me,” as the old adage goes. Looking to someone else for help or answers is something that does not come naturally to us.
But that is what we must do if we are to walk with God. We must learn how to rely upon him, because he is the only one who can do in us what he wants to see done. There is no hope for human effort when it comes to the things of God. We are enslaved to sin, and there is no hope except that which is found in Christ. If we could do spiritual things in and of ourselves, then Jesus would not have lived on this earth for us and he would not have given the Holy Spirit to us to help us. We are weak in the flesh, and we must depend upon God.
So human effort must be abandoned when it comes to being a disciple. The law of God is something that we have never kept one time in our lives. We have never pleased God on our own. We have never kept the law of God for one day. We are carnal, sold into slavery to sin. That is why Jesus has come to rescue us.
These are spiritual realities that we may never understand. Nor do we have to. We have to believe it, not understand it. God is not seeking those who can understand everything about him, for no one will ever be able to do that. We cannot understand God—but we can accept him and believe in him.
The last few verses of Romans chapter 11 tell us that God’s ways are mysterious and “past finding out.” We will never figure him out. We will never fit him into the box of human understanding. He is God and we are not. He knows it all, and by comparison, we know nothing. We have no choice but to examine our lives and give ourselves entirely to him. He can help us. He is the only who can help us. And he wants to help us. Give your heart and life to Jesus.
Dewayne Dunaway
