I Can’t, You Can, Thank You Very Much…!
I can’t…
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5)
Even when I see myself as “capable,” I’m still utterly dependent on God and He’s the One that’s working in and through me, even when I’m completely oblivious to His Presence and Activity (Phil 2:13).
You can…
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26)
You are limited to the resources you have at your disposal, God is not. God can do anything (see also Eph 3:20-21).
Than You Very Much…
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Phil 4:6)
Some want to argue, “What’s the point? God’s going to do whatever He wills…”
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. (Prov 16:9; 19:21 [see also Num 23:19; Ps 33:11])
And yet, God gives us both the opportunity to ask, seek, and knock (Matt 7:7)…
11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. (Ex 32:11-14)
It isn’t so much that God is willing to “bargain,” as much as He’s wanting us to depend on Him and to trust His Purpose.
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
(Jn 9:3 [see also 2 Cor 1:8-9])
Oswald Chambers said this about prayer:
To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature. (My Utmost for His Highest)
We’re going to run into trouble (Jn 16:33) and at that point, we can look at our situation exclusively from a human perspective or choose to see it as an opportunity for God to move.
He may not “move” the way you want Him to. It’s easy to wonder why Paul had to terrorize Christians before he became one (Acts 9:1-2). Why did so many boys have to die in order to satisfy Herod’s fear that his rule was getting ready to be overthrown (Matt 2:16-18)?
David asked a similar question in Psalm 73:3. But the bottom line is that there’s a plan…
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. (Is 55:8)
…and it’s because there’s a plan and not just a “problem,” that we can confidently keep our hand in His and say…
I can’t.
You can.
Thank You very much!
