Without Me

John 15:5b

"...without Me, you can do nothing."

This is one of my favorite verses. It tells me that God is not expecting me to do everything in my own power. It tells me that He sent His Son to empower me. This reminds me also of Matthew 11:29-30.

What are you trying to do in your own power? Is there an area of your life that you have not surrendered to Christ? Because God gave us free will, it is human nature to be independent and do it all ourself. Some of us have an even stronger bent toward that, since we did so much for ourselves, growing up. Some of us have overcome great hardships, and poverty, with hard work (which is very commendable), but this makes us even less likely to look to God for strength.

I try my best to relate this to my children. Rather than telling them to obey, I tell them they can't obey, in their own willpower. I tell them they need to pray and ask God to help them obey. I don't want them to grow up and think they are righteous because they do everything right (that is what the Pharisees did, and Jesus rebuked them). I want them to know their righteousness is not their own, it is Christ's. It is a free gift that we do not deserve. (If you want to know more about using this in your parenting, I encourage you to read Shepherding a Child's Heart, by Tedd Tripp.)

I will be referring to this post more in the future, as I am going to write a lot on the topic of obedience (probably after Christmas). So please, remember--without Him, you can do nothing.