Psalm 18:28-29 (NIV): You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.
Far too many of God’s people have low expectations of what He can do in and through them. They work and strive in their own strength, and they don’t rely on Him. They plan and scheme using their own cleverness, and don’t ask what God’s plan is, or how they might fit into it. They work and slave, and ask the Lord to bless their efforts, but make no effort to see where He is working and what He is trying to accomplish. And then, when their efforts fail, or produce less than they hoped, they figure that God is impotent, disinterested, or at least not as powerful as He is depicted in the Bible.
But they don’t see God’s mighty right arm at work, not because He is weak, but because they are trying to impose their wills, their own plans and dreams, on Him, instead of surrendering everything to align themselves with His agenda. When David kept himself aligned with God, he was protected and empowered. He killed lions, bears, and even a giant, and had victory over all of his enemies. None of that was his own idea, but was the result of listening to God’s voice, aligning himself with God’s plan, and intentionally doing His will. That is the only way for God’s people to experience His power, and His victory. We must become like David, and like Jesus Himself, who never made a move on His own, but ONLY did what His Father told Him to do. (John 5:19) If we, as God’s people, will repent of our self-will, turn away from our insistence on having our own plans succeed, and seek to do precisely what God tells us to do, then we will see His hand at work through us, and we can change the world!
Father, forgive us for trying to impose our plans on You, and trying to get You to bless our own strategies and empower our own efforts. Lord, I want to be used in YOUR plans, to be instantly responsive to YOUR will, so that I can be victorious in YOUR strength. I want to be used by You to change the world. May YOUR will be done in me. Amen.