Where Does the Power Come From

[Ramez5]

As it is written, None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one. No one understands [no one intelligently discerns or comprehends]; no one seeks out God.
All have turned aside; together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless; no one does right, not even one! Romans 3:9-12
Many times I have tried to explain to friends where the 'power' to live the Christian life comes from and tried to dissuade them from attempting to live the Christian life on their own. We can no more live the Holy life Christ has called us to live than we can drive a car without gas. None of us are strong enough to get a car down the road in our own strength. We are completely helpless.

It's easy to understand that analogy, but for some reason, we feel we could.. maybe.. just maybe.. live the Christian life.. without power. I don't think so.

It brings back to my mind my five year old son who had the hudspah to think that he could somehow fight two middle school bullies on the sidewalk. I looked out the window of my kitchen sink at my skinny little boy arguing.. with his hands on his hips.. while glaring up at these two boys just in time to get him into the house before they pummeled him. lol

We are not much different if we think we can somehow manage to fight the good fight of faith in our own strength. We simply cannot.

I can remember, at one time in my walk with the Lord, being offended by the verses above.
Recently, a non-Christian friend, said this very thing.. that he does do some good things. I knew that God rates his 'goodness' in the same category as God rates mine - null. Christian or not, this is the state of things. However, it's very hard for 'good' people to comprehend this.. especially 'good' Christians.

We don't love God, seek Him, or do good. Jesus can do all of this through us or woo us by his Grace, but we have nothing in our natural abilities that does this. What we think of as 'good'.. is tainted by selfishness. Our motives are never pure.

Until the Lord fully reveals to you.. the reality of how completely depraved your best efforts are, even as a Christian, it's very hard to come to terms with this fact--No one does good.

Once God shows you your utter depravity and helplessness, then you can understand and appreciate the precious gift of Jesus' life living through us. If you can't see this, then just read your bible for a while. Eventually you'll find your weakness. If you pray and ask the Lord, he will do this for you.

Certainly the Lord was able to brand this fact into my soul this year. It will be a very long time before I get away from the reality.. the painful reality.. that I have no goodness in me at all.. nothing. Failure has a way of doing that.

Left to myself, apart from God's holding sustaining power.. minute by minute.. of ever single day, I immediately revert to my fleshly ways to some degree. Go long enough on my own, without prayer, without seeing the Lord's face, without being cleansed by His Holy word and in a short time you will hardly be able to tell the difference between me and many moral non-Christians.

It was not just a 'platitude' or polite refusal to take credit for himself, that caused Paul to say he was the chief of sinners--present tense, I might add. There is a reason he 'gloried in his weaknesses'. He wasn't just being 'humble'--he meant every word of it.

Some truths are so painful, yet so glorious, that reading them again both sobers me and causes my heart to jump for joy. Why?

Because once a truth like this gets a hold on you and your eyes are opened, by the grace of God, to see who you 'really are' at the core and what you are capable of and incapable of, then you can finally understand and believe, to the very depths of your soul, that..


You cannot function one minute, one hour, one day, without relying with every ounce of your being on the Lord to live His life through you..

and to keep you from sin and the clutches of sin and to keep your flesh dead so it doesn't undo or interfere with His graceful, powerful, and righteous life living through you.

"... for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may ]pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!
So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses;
for when I am weak [ in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength). 2 Cor 12:8-10

We know if we really think we are 'good' or not, by how much time we spend with the Lord. Because only when we think we are doing 'ok', are we willing to forgo that time. We think we can 'handle it' on our own. We only want enough of Jesus' help to 'get by' for a while. When we hit that threshold of what we consider 'bad', we get more help or so says Oswald Chambers.

But complete, and unceasing prayer and dependence is only possible when we come face to face with our true nature.

Once you see how bad your goodness really is and how easily you are swayed to sin, you become desperate to have Jesus live through you. You can't get away from Him because he is your only hope for living the Christian life.. and the only one who can satisfy your deepest needs. In Him is our hope found and no where else.

My strength is made perfect in weakness - That is, the strength which I impart to my people is more commonly and more completely manifested when my people feel that they are weak. It is not imparted to those who feel that they are strong and who do not realize their need of divine aid. It is not so completely manifested to those who are vigorous and strong as to the feeble. It is when we are conscious that we are feeble, and when we feel our need of aid, that the Redeemer manifests his power to uphold, and imparts his purest consolations. Barnes

I don't read my bible and pray every day because it's at the top of my 'to do list'. I shudder to think of the years that


To Do Today
1. Read Bible
2. Pray

was on my list.. and how I regret that I almost never checked it off.

I pray and meditate and read.. and fellowship with the Lord because I can't get by without that.. and I take Him with me through the rest of the day.. by His grace.. out of sheer desperation and partly for the great joy! I had forgotten the sheer joy that is on the other side of that time with the Lord!


I don't seek the Lord, read His word,
and pray because I'm so good..
but because I'm so bad. That's the simple truth.

Desperation brings me to my knees..and joy keeps me there. Failure and sin, bring me back again and again... and Joy and the strength of His grace.. woo me there for the sheer pleasure of His presence. Fruitfulness tempts me too.. but mostly just the Lord himself and fellowship with him.

If only we could, as Christians, understand why we MUST die to ourselves! We can never experience living a truly good and joyful life until we die.. and make room for the Lord to take over and live through us. It is impossible for us to live the Christian life. For Jesus, it's easy.


I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

Every day, and today especially, I am so glad that the Lord reminds me of what the 'real me' is like.. how selfish my motives are, impure my desires, self-indulgent I am, and proud of my 'intelligence or discernment' I am in the flesh.

The flesh never gets saved--we just want to be rescued from it! How glad I am that the Lord rescues us minute by minute and day by day from the bondage of the flesh and that his death and resurrection, bought us redemption and freedom from being debtors to the law of sin and death.

Our souls are saved by his grace.. and our flesh is subdued by His grace.. and we are sanctified daily by His grace. But the only life that we can live as 'holy' is the Lord's life. And that life, he has to live.. so we just need to scoot over. Nothing we have to offer measures up.

This is good news and how I rejoice in it!

Dear Lord, Daily I pray you would reveal to us our sin and the reality of our fleshly natures. Don't let us ever forget and think we can somehow function apart from life in the vine which is you. Help us to stay focused on you daily and constantly, and to love you with our whole hearts, living and relying on your grace every minute. Amen

[Mary Naeem]

Thanks Ramez