We all want and need God’s help. Or do we?
I’ve come to realize that asking for God’s help is just like saying I can do some of this myself. I just need a little extra help to get me through.
I know sometimes it seems the words aren’t that important, saying we need His help or we need His strength, but I think it is important to have the right frame of mind. Until we realize that asking for help is just the same as saying we can do some of this on our own, is a lot different than admitting that we can’t do anything on our own. He is the vine, we are the branch. We get our strength and life from Him.
It seems some of the weak areas I have in my life never changed when I was asking God for His help to overcome them. One day I realized I was constantly having the same problems time after time. I came to the point I admitted I could not do this. I told God if He didn’t give me His strength, I was going to keep right on doing the things I was trying to overcome in my own strength.
Subconsciously we all know we can’t live this life without God. Once we finally realize and consciously tell God we can’t do it, that we don’t need His help but we need His strength, then things will start to change. God is saying that His strength is sufficient. He doesn’t need our help, it’s all Him.
Done with Religion 
That’s a good question. I don’t mean what we do in our own strength isn’t worth anything. Many people do good things in their own strength and are very helpful to others. But like Isaiah 64:6 says ‘ all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment’ (NASB), it doesn’t mean our good deeds are no good at all, but compared to the good works and righteousness of God, there is no comparison. It isn’t that we can’t do good things, and it doesn’t mean we can’t move until we get His strength, but the good things we do on our own isn’t going to compare to the effects that God’s strength would bring. We aren’t going to be able to overcome our sinful habits on our own strength, we can only keep trying time and time again on our own. When we keep trying with our own strength, we are always going to come up short of what could be done when we depend on God and acknowledge that only His strength is sufficient to make a real and lasting difference.
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Does this mean that what we do in our own strength isn’t worth anything at all and that we have to wait upon His strength before we could move?
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Well said my brother; I have never thought of this that way. You are right,
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Nothing. Not some things. He is the source, the principle of this new life; the author and finisher; the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end – and all points in between.
Everything of this new spiritual life is in Him and from Him. The most deceptive and dangerous thing is the flesh in man trying and seeming to succeed at spiritual things.
This is why He must bring us all to the point of utter dependence. Of such weakness that we recognize on an existential level that there is nothing good in ourselves. We don’t just need Him, as you say, to take us the rest of the way, but all of the way, from the start to the finish.
We don’t just need to be saved once at the beginning, but over and over and over again, every day. all the time.
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Thank you David. I appreciate the kind words. I would be happy to have you do a guest post sometime. Feel free to send something to me. God bless.
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Really like your style of writing. I see you’ve read Mere Churchianity too – great book. I wrote a piece on this topic once http://poetscircle.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/churchianity/
I look forward to reading more of your blog – I’d be interested in doing a guest post sometime if you’re interested. Blessings, David
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