Nothing Without Him

I was reading through my devo book a couple of days ago and came across something that I felt was worth while noting here. It starts with a story.

There was a man, about mid twenty whom although he didn’t have the experience of many of the elders of the church had the knowledge and fire for God. One day he was asked a simple question, one that you may even ask some of your friends or accountability partners. It was simply this, what has God been teaching you in your readings and time with him? He responded, “Only one thing: that I can do nothing apart from him.” The elder than asked, “Do you really mean that you can do nothing?” The young man responded by saying, “Well, no, Of course I can do many things! In fact that is just been my trouble. I know I am able to do a lot of things well.” “Then what exactly do you mean when you say you can do nothing apart from him,” the elder responded. Finally the man responded, “The Lord has shown me that I can do anything but that he has also said that apart from me you can do nothing. Confusing but it comes down to this, that anything I can and anything that I do apart from him is nothing!”

The overwhelming fact of the matter is that when Adam ate of the fruit this world feel into sin but it was much more than that. What happened that day was that the human soul became over developed. You might be going, “That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense Ben,” but stay with me for a moment. When sin entered this world man was no longer perfect and connected with God, he had the opportunity to choose his own wants and needs over the wants and needs of our heavenly father. As humans, we can go to the ends of the earth, we can build churches, and found missions, but if it is done apart from God it is tainted with the flesh and is therefore empty and nothing. However, if we do it through Christ, and pray for his blessing and his use we are no longer doing the things under our own power or through our own abilities but through Christ who can do all things.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26 NIV

Use your gifts to bring honor and glory to God and to further God’s kingdom. Remember, anything done under your own power is fruitless and results in nothing, but those things done through Christ’s power will bear fruit and be blessed beyond your wildest dreams!