The Battle belongs to God

In the past few months I’ve noticed that the greater faith I have in God, the more I am able to do things I thought I could not do. In other words, faith in me doesn’t work very well. When what I decide to do doesn’t work out, confidence drops. When what God decides to do, it happens. Today’s reading agrees with this:

It is nothing to God to work with many or with few, and no giants or walled cities can successfully oppose Him. It was unbelief, therefore, and unbelief alone that prevented the Israelites from going into the Promised Land. It may have sounded like humility to themselves to talk of their own weakness and of the strength of their enemies, but it was really unbelief.

The devotional author goes on to say that focus is more important than self-image. It might seem humble to focus on my weakness, but that also puts the spotlight on me and my sin instead of Christ. I cannot do what He asks, but He goes before me and works to perfect His strength in my weakness.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9–10)

I’ve heard this said flippantly, as if the speaker knew the teaching but it was not part of their experience or a reality that they felt weak. I’ve done the same thing, yet still put confidence in my strengths. It is when I faced “giants in the land” that weakness shows up and it becomes very much a fact that without Christ, I can do nothing.

And this is the odd part: reaching that place is where the life  of Christ and His power becomes obvious. It is in the place where I say “I can’t” and am totally convinced of my weakness. In that place is where another truth is realized:

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love (Ephesians 1:3–4)

In all this, another factor is at work — faith. In the face of giants, unbelief gives up when the focus is on me and weakness. Yet Jesus graciously comes to the rescue of those who are helpless. I see Him in a different way when I cannot do what I know He wants me to do. Instead of asking the impossible, He is asking me to let Him do it. Like that hand in the glove. I need to stop trying to move the hand and let Him move me.

Even though I still feel weak and unable. Even though the task seems impossible. And when He begins to move, and I see the results, my faith in Him soars… oh, I know, faith is the assurance of things unseen, yet when He moves, He lets me see it — and He fills my heart with praise and great joy. I want to tell the world about the wonder of Jesus Christ.

PRAY: Jesus, I’m such a small nothing, a tiny blimp in history and in Your kingdom, yet You allow me to watch You change weaklings into conquerors, which is an amazing thing, particularly in the hearts of the weaklings! What You do is upside down and backwards compared to how the world thinks we should live when we want to make things happen. How delightful to be in on this ‘secret’ of living as a weak winner instead of a do-it-myself nothing.

Letting go — of what?

Let go and let God is an expression that receives polarized opinions. For many, it is a trite saying that becomes an excuse for disobedience. That is, I can release everything to God; He will do it all and I don’t have to do anything. However, the idea of letting go, if explained, becomes far more than trite. It is the very essence of living for Jesus Christ and in His power.

I didn’t hear from God this morning in Spurgeon’s devotional, so popped open “My Utmost for His Highest” and read these powerful verses about Christian living.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:9–11)

Oswald Chambers writes about eternal life. He says that this is the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on a human level while He walked this earth. Then he says: “ . . . it is the same life, not a copy of it, which is manifested in our mortal flesh when we are born of God. Eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift of God.”

Genuine Christians are those who have made what Chambers calls a “moral decision” about sin. By grace through faith we become children of God who turn from sin because we have a new source of life. That is, all the power that is Jesus Christ now is in us because we are “in Him” and He lives in us.

The Bible says, “You shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit.” Notice that this is not power from the Holy Spirit. The power is the Holy Spirit, not something which He gives to me. The life that is in Jesus is made mine — once I made that decision to be identified with Him.

The hard part about getting right with God is always that sin issue. No one wants to come to the Light because our lives are full of sin and the Light will expose it. But once we do, the full life of Jesus Christ comes in “that we might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

Chambers points out that this eternal life has nothing to do with time or endlessness as much as it is the quality of life lived by Jesus Christ. He is the only source of it. I, in my weakness and inabilities, can experience this power once I am willing to “let go” of my own.

This is the secret about let go and let God. It is not about sitting back and doing nothing, but about saying no to my own plans, schemes, energies and abilities that “blur the life of Jesus” as Chambers says. I must keep releasing my insistence on these things so that the full life of God will invade and motivate every part of who I am and what I do. It is only by this that I can truly let God have His way in my life. Letting go is about abandoning sin. Letting God is about obedience to Him.

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Lord, I need this reminder. I need to be constantly aware that it is in You that I live and move and have my being. All that I do must be done in the power of Your life, not my own. However, this isn’t about a “better power” (even though Your power is far greater than mine) so much as it is about Your glory. If my life and my skills are selfishly and self-centeredly exercised apart from You, I get the pats on the back. No one will see You in me or realize that I am Your child when I refuse to let go. Considering myself dead to sin and alive to You is letting go, but it is also a far cry from sitting back and doing nothing. It remains the greatest challenge of being a Christian.