Good times of worship and good times with family today, Father. We were blessed with Your love and protection. All praise to You for Your freely given abundance!

1 Corinthians 2:11-16 (<<click here to read the passage)

I’m sure that most of us are familiar with the idiom “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps”. When it was originally verbalized it referred to something that just didn’t make sense or was preposterous. Over time it came to mean the ability to do it ourselves with no one else’s help.

One author stated that thinking one could do that conveyed the same idea as pushing a wheelbarrow while sitting in the wheelbarrow itself – it’s absurd! Neither action can be accomplished.

It is a physical impossibility but in our walk with God, it is also a spiritual impossibility. We may have done everything we need to seek His forgiveness for our sins and are very likely genuine followers of Christ. But to victoriously follow Him we cannot pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps spiritually or push ourselves in our own wheelbarrow either. We absolutely must depend on the Holy Spirit to achieve ongoing victory!

My Life Application Study Bible states that our great enemy, the devil, his greatest impact on us occurs when he deceives us, we need the Holy Spirit’s help. We will not succeed in trying to go it alone. My study Bible goes on to say,

Spiritual discernment enables us to draw conclusions based on God’s perspective, make wise decisions in difficult circumstances, recognize the activities of God’s Spirit, distinguish the correct and incorrect use of Scripture, and identify and expose false teachers. Ask God to give you his discernment as you serve him. Let that discernment guide you in your daily walk.

I expressed the same idea in today’s sermon. If we try to do it all by ourselves, I can guarantee that we are going to fall flat on our faces. We may think that will not be the case, but we are incapable of any other outcome! We are weak…He is strong.

Here’s what I shared in my sermon (Daniel’s Strength and Conviction):

I don’t believe there is any way that we can tackle the big things if we are letting littler things slide. How can we possibly take on changing the world for Christ if we can’t successfully change ourselves for Christ?

It is a battle! From experience, I know I must be diligent, saying “no” to the fringy things that are just the taste of bigger things that will take me down if I am not exceedingly careful. And the most important thing is realizing and flat-out owning the idea that I cannot do it by myself. We all must call out to God, for only He can help us, only He can deliver us!

Seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance for your life, then watch and see what God can do in and through you!

Oct 8th, 2023, Sun, 7:47 pm