I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me I. Co-Workers with Christ

There are so many things that we need to hold in tension if we are to be in the process of becoming whole, and becoming the men and women of God that He intends for us to be. The above verse from Philippians 4:13, in many ways illustrates two such things in what I have described as the trinity of helps (Bible help, self help and God's help). In particular it shows the need to marry self help and God's help.

Note carefully that the verse does not say “I can do all thing period”, nor does it imply that Christ does it all for me. In fact its true both that I have free will (and a part to play) and that God is Sovereign. It is at some level a mystery, but at least part of this is that He is requiring not only our cooperation, but He offers partnership. Paul puts it this way “we are labourers together with God" (1 Corinthians 3:9).

The Lord is a good and gracious and loving partner. He knows when we are weak, He loves us exactly where we are at, but loves us far too much to leave us that way. It is His intention to display His Glory in and through our transformation. Many times that is seen as He brings us from where we were at, to wholeness and fullness of life. He does not promise that it will be easy, but He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us. That does not mean we will not feel at times like He has deserted us. However at times like that, as with the wife of the truck driver who complained from the other side of the cab that “we are not as close as we used to be”, we need to ask ourselves “Who moved?”

God is committed to our wholeness and our growth, and because of this, there are times when He will need to say “no”, and He may lead us, or leave us, in places we would rather not be. If you are like me, I came to Him in the first place because I was in a lot of (emotional) pain. Not surprisingly I just wanted to get rid of it. But there were lessons He wanted me to learn as with His timing, He lead me out of that pain. Some of the lessons were about not making poor choices, but some of the lessons were to help me to trust His Sovereignty even when I did not understand.

We are in partnership with Christ, nevertheless He is the senior partner. Last day we were talking about the trichotomy “Lunatic, Liar or Lord”. It is vitally important for us to understand who we are in Him (see later posts), but we need to start with our understanding of who He is. He is Lord. He is the God-man. He shows us what God is like (John 14:9). He also shows us man as God intends for Him to be, for His goal for us is that we be like Him (1 John 3:2). In particular Jesus did only what He saw the Father doing (John 5:18).

If He is God (and He is) then He knows what is best for us even if (when) we don't understand all that He allows. It has been said that if He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all. This does not come easily, and it does not come without cost. Even Jesus needed to pray “Not my will, but Yours be done”. We need to grow into this. This is not faith/obedience 101 but it is the goal if we are to bring Glory to Him and in the process become mature and whole and fulfilled. We have been given weapons which, when we have learned to appropriate (i.e. to receive and to use) them, we will be able to bring even our thoughts captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 10:5). In the same way if like Paul we are going to be able to say “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, ” then we will need to grow up into this too. But let me say it again, it is a partnership, and He has promised to be with us (and help us) all the way for “I will never leave you, nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). I invite you to respond to Him. I have asked God to take every "no" out of me. More to come!