What Can You Do Through Christ?

It seems like not a week goes by that I don't hear someone quote the verse, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13).  It's a good verse.  We use it often because we think it is encouraging and will help someone get through a difficult situation.  And I suppose it does (though we often use it in a way it was not intended, but that's another post).

I've been wondering what would happen if we put a different spin on this verse?  We know, because God is God and He can do anything, that He can give us strength to get through all of life's difficulties.  But how much do we trust God to do just that?  A child may trust her father but if she never jumps, and gives him the opportunity to catch her, does her trust make any difference in the real world?   I don't think it does.  See we Christians talk about trusting God a lot and how He will get us through the difficult times but I don't think most of us actually live that in our real lives.

Let me give you a hypothetical scenario and see what you would do...

Let's say that you absolutely believe that the Holy Spirit is directing you to go to a foreign country as a missionary.  My guess is that the first thing you would do is start looking for Him to confirm this for you somehow.  You'll look for "open doors" or things others may say that support your decision so that you feel more comfortable that you've heard from God.  And let's pretend that He begins to open the doors for you to go so that you feel even more confident that He is orchestrating this step in your life.  But then, as you begin to make the final preparations to leave, or perhaps are now on your way, God sends people into your life that begin telling you what will happen to you when you get to your destination.  Someone comes and tells you that the Holy Spirit informed them that when you landed you would be detained and jailed.  Later someone else comes and tells you that you will not only be jailed but you will be tortured and bound and imprisoned in this foreign country.

How do you feel now about God's call on your life?  Are you still absolutely sure that God wants you to go?  Or are you now questioning your decision, er, God's decision?  Are you saying to yourself, "maybe this was just a test... maybe I missed something... maybe God meant to talk to someone else."  Often, when the doors don't open or the road gets tough we begin to assume that God must have been mistaken or that we "miss-heard" the call on our lives.

In Acts 21 Paul is heading back to Jerusalem absolutely convinced that the Holy Spirit is leading him there.  He meets one believer after another who tells him that when he gets to Jerusalem he will be bound and imprisoned and that he should not go to Jerusalem.  They beg and plead with him not to go because they believe that he will die when he gets there.  (By the way, the Holy Spirit never said he would die and never intended that the people who prophesied would try to keep him from going.  The Holy Spirit was simply trying to inform Paul of what awaited him so that he would know what was coming and find comfort in the fact that God was in charge!)

After all this here is Paul's response, "The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience..." (MSG).

Paul knew that God had called and arranged for him to go to Jerusalem.  He also knew that whatever happened to him there would only be what God allowed to happen to him.  So whether he would continue to live and share the message of hope and salvation through Jesus Christ or was killed and went to be with Jesus face-to-face, the outcome was still up to God.

So what are you willing to do in the power and strength that God provides you through His Holy Spirit?  He is only limited (as if it were possible to limit God) by our willingness to trust him, to jump as in the earlier illustration.  So if God can do anything and everything through you, what are you willing to do through Him?  Are you willing to trust that He knows what He's doing even when you don't?  Even when the doors don't open and the windows fall closed?  Will you still believe Him even when He "seems" to be telling you something different then He did before?

You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength, but can He do all the things He wants to through YOU?