** …Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. ** Zechariah 4:6
Independence, self-made success, a conquering spirit, a Type A personality can all drive us to excellence and accomplishment.
Though all of these traits have their value, they can also blind us to our need for the Spirit of God to move in the hearts of others’ and in our own lives’ battles.
If we all take a look at whatever current trial we are in, and do some self-examination, we might see that the resolution to our trial has more to do with our own efforts than it does to our dependence on the Lord and His Spirit.
The human need to be victorious in all things can be a stumbling block for any of us. Our best efforts and our best intentions can be what is keeping us from allowing the Lord to give us a more complete and miraculous end to our trials.
God’s Word tells us that our own might and our own power is not the answer to our problems.
His Spirit is the One that is all knowing, all powerful and always present. Which means He is always near. He sees everything that is happening and knows all that needs to be done to have victory. And He has the power to overcome human nature, human weakness, and personal communication errors. His Spirit has the power to override nature itself. He is everywhere, all the time and knows all the details of every act, thought and intention.
Yet, we think that we can solve all of our own problems on our own. We think that if we just do this or that or if we could just talk to so and so….we can fix it. Whatever ‘it’ is.
From 1 Corinthians 3 we know that we are ** laborers together with God** Which in part means that we are the boots on the ground, and He is the power behind us. Sometimes we get that mixed up and think we are the boots and the power. Or we are the power and we want the Lord to be the boots.
Laborers together with God is more like putting everything in the Lord’s Hands and then waiting for His instructions and then we do the boots on the ground thing. We get busy. After we hear from God. After we have spent time in prayer. After we have clear guidance on how to proceed. After we have initiated the conversation with Him and after we have given Him carte blanche with the outcome.
We shouldn’t be running off and doing whatever comes into our mind. We shouldn’t be trying harder and harder to get it all done and then when we are exhausted and frustrated, we finally ask the Lord for help. We would live more peacefully if we would stop taking the reins all the time and stopped having a continual tug of war about who is in charge.
We all need to learn to let go of our day-to-day lives. We need to allow the Lord to take the reins in every problem we have and wait for Him to show us what to do and when. And then when the answer comes, be happy about it. Sometimes the issue is that we don’t like how the Lord resolves our problems or when He resolves them. Which only shows again who we allow to be in charge of our lives.
To be honest, we all understand that this is all easier to say than do. We are used to waking up with our list of to do’s and our panic for the pending emergencies. This may be the reason why David tells us to **Be still and know ** that God is God. It would be better if we started each day asking for His guidance for every thought, action, duty, need, desire, priority and decision that we have to deal with before we ever get out of bed.
That’s what I do. Sometimes. Well, once in a while. Maybe once a week, when things are going well. Actually, not nearly often enough. Maybe it should go on the top of my New Year’s resolution list. 🙂