Are you finding it hard to live the Christian life? You want to be loving and kind, you want to be obedient and pure. But being like Jesus isn’t easy. It is no life for mere human strength.
Amazingly, we often reduce following Jesus to a human endeavor. We feel that we must try harder, be more disciplined, turn over a new leave, set some goals. These are great ideas, and I certainly do them. But these strategies are perfectly insufficient to transform us into all that we can be and do in Christ.
So how do we do it? How does it happen? Carefully read these astounding passages (emphasis added):
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” 2 Cor 9:8 ESV
“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, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (1 Cor 15:10 ESV)
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Gal 2:20 ESV)
"For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." (Col 1:29 ESV)
Here’s what you need to know and serve Christ: super-human strength.
Here is the good news: God stands ready to give you grace to make you able in all things at all times to love and serve him.