No longer doing Christianity in our own strength.

When we begin a relationship with God, we have a deep understanding of just how much we need Him. Our hearts are weighed down by sin and we are utterly helpless. We recognise that He is so much greater than ourselves and we depend on Him fully. Yet, somewhere along the way, we start to no longer relate to God in that sheer dependance.

His blood has washed our hearts and He has clothed us in the purest of garments. We feel that we have made good progress in the Christian journey up to this point and are eager to apply all the truths that we have learned from Him. Little do we know that we are headed for defeat. His voice was once the tone of our lives but now we have replaced it with our own and it’s hard for us to even tell the difference anymore.

We don’t realize it immediately but soon enough we come to a scary realization- we are in over our head. No longer are we able to gain victory over our struggles. We experience defeat after defeat. The joy we once had is gone and we often wonder if it was ever there.  Could it be that God had left us to perish under the crushing weight of our inability?

You see, when we started to depend on ourselves, God stepped back. He knows we cannot do it in our own strength, though we often know full well what we ought to do. He lets us come to a point where we come face to face with our inadequacy because He wants us to relate to Him in the same way we did when we first started.

Yes, we are called to obedience, but we can only offer a willing heart at best. God wants us to constantly ask for His help and to understand that we are not depending on our own resources, but on His. Could it be this easy? I honestly had a hard time figuring it out myself, but it is actually meant to be simple. We are called to follow Christ with childlike faith.

I’ll give you a plain example. Let’s say we have a stronghold in a certain area of our lives. We cannot overcome it and every time it surfaces, we are in deep waters. We have tried so hard to gain victory in this area but we just can’t. It’s because even though we might pray about it, we are still fighting ourselves. If we turn to God in simple dependence when it resurfaces- in the thick of it, not in the aftermath- we will start sensing a real shift. Peace will start to course through our thoughts where there was once confusion and turmoil. When God steps in, He enables us to overcome. Let’s make a habit of looking to God and away from ourselves in all things- even when we feel in control.