A thousand demons with ropes could not trip a foot that God has made sure. Against all odds, the Lord's servants can be anything God wants them to be. But before getting too high on possibilities, I am reminded of my limitations (Romans 7:15-25) and shaken by the awareness of what I can't do.
I cannot control my circumstances or guarantee my own health. Nor, by a thousand prayers or acts of kindness, can I assure my loved ones' well-being or the consequences of their actions.
Neither can I take credit for my successes or even see the number of my failures. I cannot take a breath without God's permission, lift a finger without His enablement, or think a thought apart from His grace. Nor can I revisit the past to correct mistakes nor step beyond the present to see and plan for the future.
Then there's my own heart. Even if I mastered many skills, I still couldn't master my own heart, or my own mouth (James 3:8). I cannot keep the Lord from watching me, from loving me, from holding me accountable for every thought, motive, and action. And I cannot-in any realm of life-have it all. I cannot, at the same time, stop being an enemy of God as long as I am choosing to be a friend of the world (James 4:4).
I cannot understand how God has always existed, how He could make something out of nothing, or why He has chosen to give me the inexpressible, inestimable gift of life.
What we can do, by God's grace, is believe in His ability to give us a spirit of trust, a spirit of prayer. We can rely on Him to give us a spirit of diligence and obedience, to be growing more and more into all that He wants us to be-in us, around us, for us, and through us. What could be better!
MRD II
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