The key to being able to do what God’s tasked us with is realising that we can’t do it in our own strength. We can only do it through God’s empowering grace. God said to Paul, ‘My grace is sufficient for you,’ and the word ‘grace’ includes ‘all of God you will ever need for whatever you face in life’. That’s an amazing promise! Sometimes we think we have to do it all. We forget that the power of Christ works through us, so we end up discouraged and defeated before we even begin. ‘We are labourers together with God’ (1 Corinthians 3:9 KJV). We can’t do God’s part, and He won’t do our part. He wants us to follow His leading, but He insists that we depend on Him every step of the way. This is hard on our ego, which says, ‘I can do it myself!’ Sometimes we have to go through really tough times before we’ll let go of this kind of thinking. Knowing that we have certain gifts and talents, we make the mistake of assuming they’re all we need to succeed. But unless God’s grace is operating through our gifts, we won’t be up to the challenge. The Bible says, ‘We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us’ (Romans 12:6 NIV). Grace is like electricity; in order for it to flow and function effectively, we must stay plugged in to the power source. Jesus said: ‘No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me…apart from me you can do nothing’ (John 15:4-5 NIV). So, let’s depend more on God.
