The Christian can live by his own strength and limitations or he can live by the strength of Christ, who is his life. God wants us, by faith, to appropriate the strength of Christ for daily living, for the struggles we face and for the work God gives us to do. The strength of Christ makes all the difference.
One reason God allows trials to come into our lives is so that we will learn to trust Him and lay hold of His power. He has promised to be with us. He has promised that He would not allow us to be tested beyond our ability to endure, but would enable us to bear it. He has promised us the strength to enable us to meet whatever comes as a victor, not a victim.
Is there something God is asking you to do and you are looking at your inability instead of His ability?
Every opportunity to serve or to trust God brings with it a crisis of belief. We can look at God through our own limitations and circumstances and become discouraged. Or we can look at our circumstances and limitations through God and grow stronger in our faith. The former perspective will make us feel impossibly inadequate, like the 10 spies who "gave a negative report to the Israelites about the land they had scouted: 'The land we passed through to explore is one that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are men of great size. We even saw the Nephilim there.' (The offspring of Anak were descended from the Nephilim.) 'To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them'" (Numbers 13:32-33 HCSB).
Did you notice that the enemy seemed bigger to these men than God?
Joshua and Caleb, on the other hand, looked at the enemy from God's perspective. Compared to God, even the giants in the land were small. They called the people to trust God.
Only don’t rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us. Don’t be afraid of them!” (Numbers 14:9 HCSB)Our God is bigger than any challenge. This is why Paul, like the many other heroes of faith, could say,
Will we fix our faith on God or on our limitations? Will we lay hold of the promises God has given us?I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13 NKJV)
