I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me

I’ve always been a perfectionist, whether at my job, in my home, or even in the smallest tasks. Everything I set out to do, I put my all into it. As a Christian, I put a lot of demands on myself, trying to follow Christ to the letter and trying to show the same kind of love and understanding He did. This isn't very easy in a world where we’re not only faced with much opposition, but sometimes people can be downright mean.

I found myself falling short time and time again, and began to feel a sense of extreme discouragement. No matter how hard I tried, I kept sliding back into sin and could never seem to do anything right. It got to a point I could hardly even pray any more, and when I did it was half-heartedly. I began to drift and it wasn’t long before I stopped praying altogether. I was so down on myself I didn’t feel I was even worthy to pray. It wasn’t that I had stopped believing in God, I just didn’t think He believed in me any more.

I went on with my life. I was a nurse and concentrated on caring for my patients the best I knew how, not giving much thought about trying to be perfect any more. I guess you can say I felt pretty much defeated.

One night, as I was busy caring for a premature infant in the NICU, I noticed one of my co-workers watching me with a peculiar look on her face. I asked her what was wrong. I thought for sure I must have been doing something wrong for her to be looking at me so oddly. I was not prepared for what she was about to say to me at all. She smiled and said, “I see Jesus in you.”

I stood there stunned for half a minute while all sorts of thoughts raced through my head. How could she think she saw Jesus in me when I had turned my back on Him years ago? Then, almost as quickly as I had that thought, I realized if she was seeing Jesus in me it had to be because He was there. Even though I had left Him all those years ago, He had never left me. I burst into tears as this realization flooded over me and I had to ask to be excused. I went downstairs and outside to the parking lot and fell on my knees weeping, thanking God for never leaving me.

As I sat there I thought about how Jesus must have been working in me all this time and I didn’t even know it. He had to be the one enabling me to give my patients the love and understanding they needed, because I was so bogged down with all my problems I didn’t care much about anything any more. What my co-worker had seen certainly had nothing to do with me.

The verse, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” came to my mind as I sat there. I was beginning to realize without Him we are nothing and no matter how hard we try to do good, we cannot do it on our own strength. No wonder I always felt so defeated when I was trying so hard to do things on my own. The only thing that’s worth anything in this world is His love and His righteousness, and if people happen to see that in us, what they’re really seeing is Him.

I know now it’s in my weakness that His strength is made perfect and I am confident He’s always there, even when it might not feel like it. I am no longer a perfectionist, trying to do all things on my own, but someone who knows “I can do all things (only) through Christ who strengthens me.”

Submitting Your Will to God

We try so hard to control our own lives. Relinquishing our own will and accepting God’s will for our lives is probably the hardest thing we can ever do. It seems every one of us must go through a lot of pain and sorrow before we get to that point.

Being alone has always been one of my hardest struggles. When I was younger I did a lot of wrong things to fill the void. I went to bars and hung out with the wrong people and got myself into several abusive relationships. I began to wonder if I had a sign on my back saying, "abuse me." It took a very long time of heartache and pain before I finally stopped trying to do things my way and submitted my will wholly to God.

I knew in order to do that I had to sincerely desire His will for my life no matter what it might be. There were a few things I desired that were pretty hard to let go of, but when I looked at the mess I was making doing things my own way, I was a little more willing to hand it over to someone who knows better. It was my first lesson in trust.

The hardest thing I had to lay down was my desire to have a good man in my life. I was never good at relationships and I longed to have a good man to share my life with. Now I was faced with whether or not I’d be able to accept spending my life alone. I wasn’t sure if I had enough trust. Did I really believe God knew better than I did what was best for me? Then I was reminded of how God tells us His ways are not our ways. While I was thinking of being loved by a man, He was trying to make me see that He loved me more than any man on this earth ever could. He was offering me Perfect love and I decided I wanted it and it was enough. That’s when I knew I had truly submitted my will to Him.

In my favorite book “Hinds Feet on High Places” by Hannah Hurnard, the main character, Much Afraid, goes through many trials and tribulations before she is finally able to submit her will. The book portrays her trials as a journey through treacherous terrain and when she finally lays down her will it’s portrayed as pulling her flesh heart out of her chest and laying it on an altar. That’s pretty much what it was feeling like to me.

I’ve been alone for a pretty long time now and I still don't like it, but I try to fill my time reaching out to others. He never fails to bring someone into my life that needs encouragement or some kind of help. I'm always busy doing something. I still get lonely and sometimes I get discouraged and maybe even a little resentful. It seems I’m always taking care of someone else and my life is not my own. It just doesn’t seem fair sometimes. But then it hits me and I have to smile. My life is NOT my own, (thank God.) I remind myself how, left to my own devices, I bring nothing but heartache and pain on myself. My life is HIS, it's in His hands, and I’m so very thankful.

There are always going to be hard times. People will try your patience and things won’t go right. But, no one is perfect so try not to come down on yourself too hard if things start to get to you. Every hard time you go through has a lesson for you to learn, whether it’s patience or endurance, or just an invitation to lay it all down and give it to God. He’s there with you always, loving and guiding you, even when you don’t acknowledge Him. He’s just waiting for you to reach out to Him.

Is It Possible To Be Without Sin?

If it were possible for us to be without sin, we would never have needed a Savior, it would make Jesus’ death on the cross null and void, and we wouldn’t have to fight so hard to avoid temptations every single day. The Apostle Paul said he was constantly warring against the flesh and the things he knew to do good he could not:

“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” (Romans 7:18-20)

The Bible is full of examples of how the flesh, which is our home for now, is constantly warring against that which is spiritual. The most we can do as long as we’re in our human bodies, is to strive to follow Jesus’ example and live our lives as close to His example as we can. Even Paul had to do that, and you can see how much of a struggle it was, even for him. No matter how much we try to do good, we are constantly warring against the flesh.

The Bible says:

“There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Romans 3:11-12)

There are many such examples in the Bible of how impossible it is, on our own efforts, to obtain perfection and how vital it is to submit our lives to God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us. Even with that, we still need to make a conscious effort every single day, not to quench the Spirit by giving in to sin and temptations. It's a daily struggle within all of us.

Putting aside the examples of Paul, the Bible verses, and even Jesus, let’s look at another reason why it’s impossible for us to be without sin. If it were possible for us to be without sin, this world would have outgrown the need for God a long time ago. As more and more people become sinless, the world itself would eventually reach perfection, with no more wars, murders, or other crimes. We all know this is never going to happen until Jesus comes. The very fact that all these things are still in this world and escalating, proves that sin is rampant.

There has only ever been one man on this earth without sin, and that was Jesus, only because He was born of God and was one with God. We, on the other hand, are born of the flesh and are one with sin. All we can really do is try to follow His example and live our lives as close to His as possible. It is not possible to reach perfection as long as we are cloaked in the sin of our own flesh. Only when we come to the end of our journey, and our souls are freed from the flesh that hinders us, can we ever be one with God and be without sin.

Are Angels Real and Can You See Them?

I believe there are angels all around us and I do believe we can see them, but I don’t believe they appear to us as creatures with glowing wings and halos. They may very well look like that in their celestial state (who really knows?) but I believe they appear to us in the form of ordinary people and sometimes even animals.

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13: 2)

This verse from the Bible claims that any stranger we happen to meet could very well be an angel so we should we should be careful how we act around them. This pretty much convinces me they do not appear in a celestial form, but more likely as someone we probably wouldn’t even notice on the street. I’m positive I have had several encounters in my lifetime and believe we probably all have and might not know it.

My first encounter was when I was about 11 years old and I had just started going to a new school. The buses were on strike so we had to walk the 2 miles to get there. I was a very timid child and the thought of having to walk by myself to a strange place was a little frightening, but the way was straight, with no turns, so I felt I would be fine.

I made it to school with no problem and when it was time to walk home I was feeling very brave and confident. What I hadn’t realized during my walk to the school was, the road forked right at the intersection where I had crossed. I hadn’t noticed it then, because the road was still straight going up to the school, but now on my way back, there it was looming ahead of me.

I immediately panicked. I wasn’t sure which way to go because both roads were practically side by side. I hesitantly started to walk down the one I thought looked the most familiar. It wasn’t long before I realized this road had all kind of bends and curves I didn’t remember being there on the way to school. I came to a bridge I knew I hadn’t passed in the morning and when I turned around in a panic to go back, I was faced with yet another fork in the road!

I literally began to shake because, not only was I helplessly lost, but I had been given strict orders to come straight home from school and I knew if I was late I would be in big trouble. I began to cry because I had no idea which way to go. Then I remembered a Sunday school lesson I had learned about having faith. If you pray, believing with all your heart that God will hear and answer, He will give you your desire.

With the pure, unwavering faith of a child, I closed my eyes and prayed and asked God to please send someone to show me the way home. I believed with all my heart, He would. I had no doubts, whatsoever, that when I opened my eyes someone would be standing there.

I opened my eyes and there stood a little brown dog looking up at me. He started walking away and without hesitation I followed him. I had no doubts whatsoever that God had sent him. I wasn’t in the least surprised when we came to the same intersection where I had first gotten lost. The little dog looked up at me again and then turned and scampered back the way we came. I remember getting goose bumps because I knew in my heart I had just been with an angel.

My second encounter was about 6 years later. My younger brother and I had always been close and he had run away from home. He had been gone about a week and we couldn’t find him anywhere. Back in those days they didn’t have Amber Alerts and the local police weren’t much help in finding runaways. I was worried sick over him and hadn’t slept that whole week. I was exhausted and had an ache in my heart that just wouldn’t go away. I had been praying earnestly for God to protect him and somehow let me know he was alright.

I was on my way to work and had come to the trolley station where I took the trolley every day. There was always a wait of about 15 minutes so I sat down on the bench as I always did. There were people sitting next to me on the bench and people walking around. The station was always busy in the morning with people going to work. I sat there and silently continued my prayers.

I was interrupted by someone tapping me on the shoulder. I looked up to see a very old, kindly looking gentleman looking down at me. He had the kindest eyes. No one else seemed to even notice him standing there, because no one turned their heads as he spoke, and it was almost as if everything around me suddenly stood still.

All he said to me was, “Things are going to be alright,” and then he turned and walked away towards the road. I sat there stunned for a few seconds, and then I jumped up to run after him to ask him how he knew, or why he said that, but he was gone. I looked up and down the long road. There was nowhere he could have ducked into or went, except for either up the road or down the road. He was a very old man so he couldn’t have gotten very far in those few seconds, but he was gone! I got goose bumps again, just like I had years earlier. I got on the trolley and, during the ride to work, I once again knew I had encountered an angel. I also knew, without a doubt, I would see my brother that day.

I worked for the telephone company and I had only been at my station about an hour when my supervisor plugged in behind me and told me I had a visitor down in the lobby. It’s so strange when something like this happens, because it’s as if you know exactly what’s happening, but logic is telling you it’s impossible. Regardless of that, here it was. I knew I was headed down to the lobby to see my brother.

When I got down to the lobby, there he was, dirty and disheveled, and looking so scared and lonely. He wanted to go home but he was afraid of getting punished for running away. I promised to go with him and stand by him, and gave him some money to get something to eat and told him to wait for me to get done work and then we went home together.

I have had other experiences where I was sure I had been visited by angels, but none of them stand out as much as these two experiences. I have to admit there may have been a little room for doubt in some of my experiences, but not these two. I am absolutely sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a little dog and a very old, kindly gentleman were not of this world.

Why Is There So Much Disagreeing In The Christian Faith?

There seems to be so much disagreeing among Christians it leads you to wonder if there’s anything they actually do agree on. How can there be so much disagreement when we all worship the same God and read the same Bible? There has to be a reason why there is so much division among Christians.

Even though we all read the same Bible, I believe one of the primary causes of disagreement among Christians is a lack of understanding of scripture. Even with all the study helps available, people still seem to derive different interpretations and persist to argue over the meanings of words. This ultimately results in confusion and division. I have personally witnessed the breakup of many Bible study groups and even churches over this kind of conflict. In my opinion, the primary reason for all the different (and new) denominations of today is because of too many people having their own personal interpretations of the Bible, and each one believing his is right.

I’m sure all the struggling over the meanings of words is an honest attempt to gain deeper knowledge, but we seem to forget it’s impossible to know the ways of God through our own understanding. God said the only way to have true understanding is through the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, this concept appears to have gotten lost in the shuffle with the numerous Bible study resources available to anyone who wants to gain knowledge. Who needs the Holy Spirit when you have all that?

There are many Christians these days, who pour through every book they can lay their hands on and listen to every “reputable” pastor they can find. They consider themselves to be true Bible scholars and are eager to plant their seeds of knowledge everywhere they can. Unfortunately, they are the ones you’ll usually find lashing out at anyone who doesn’t agree with them and the ones lording themselves over everyone else in churches and Bible study groups. You won’t find much in the way of love and kindness because that can only come by the Holy Spirit.

God warns us in the Bible this is exactly what happens when people lean to their own understanding so it’s really not surprising. He also says leaning to our own understanding is prideful:

“He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,” (1 Timothy 6: 4)

I admit this isn’t an easy concept to grasp because our logic tells us there’s nothing wrong with an honest quest for knowledge. How could it be harmful or prideful, and how else are we supposed to learn if we don’t ask questions and seek out answers? The reason it’s prideful is because there is definitely an ego trip involved. Who of us hasn’t had a sense of pride after finally achieving a goal through our own efforts and hard work? Doting about questions and striving over words is certainly hard work.

The second part of the verse tells us all this puffed up knowledge will eventually lead to envy, strife, railings and evil surmisings. Why? Because pride will, undoubtedly, cause us to flaunt it. We just can’t help ourselves, we’re human. If you go to any online Christian group, you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. It’s not easy to be humble when we work hard at something and come up with amazing results.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

These verses sum it all up very nicely. We need to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, especially in matters of understanding. This means submitting our wills (and our egos) to Him. How many people are truly doing this when studying His word? From the looks of it, I wouldn’t guess many. If we could all just learn to rely on God to give us understanding instead of trying so hard to understand on our own, “our paths would be made straight” and maybe we could finally be in agreement.