Thursday, October 27, 2011
I was
mowing some grass that had overgrown and had rented a heavy lawnmower to cut
through the tall grass. Much of the time
I was pushing this heavy mower uphill. It was exhausting. Considerable time had passed and I noticed
this lever, near the handle, that kept poking me in the leg as I strained to
push the mower uphill. I kept wondering,
“What a stupid place to put a lever?”
Every time I pushed up hill it kept poking me. I stopped long enough to take a closer look
at this metal lever. It read “Engage self-propeller”. You’ve got to be kidding! I had mowed over half the lawn without engaging
the self propeller? I was doing all the work while all along the mower would
have done most of the work for me. I just needed to hold on and walk behind it.
Many
times that’s the way it is with our spiritual life. We strain. We push. We sweat. We try and try
to make it happen. And all along God is prodding us as we strain. God says, “Let
me do the heavy lifting.”I was reading my friends blog the other day and he offered an enlightening word study on this very subject. He took note of how consistently the preposition “through” is used in the New Testament.
Acts
14:27 – On arriving there, they gathered
the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the
Gentiles.
Acts
15:4 – When they came to Jerusalem, they
were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported
everything God had done through
them.
Acts
15:12 – They whole assembly became silent
as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the miraculous signs and
wonders God had done among the Gentiles through
them.
Romans
15:18 – I will not venture to speak of
anything except what Christ has accomplished through me.
2
Corinthians 5:20 – We are therefore
Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
2
Timothy 4:17 – But the Lord stood at my
side and gave me strength, so that through
me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.
1) Acknowledge that we
can do nothing without Him. We can sweat. We can strain. But we cannot minister
without him.
2) Pray that we will
be a conduit of God’s blessing. Not from
me, but through me, people will be blessed.
3) Trust God. We must
believe that God will do what God says He will do.
4) Act out our
faith. It’s not enough to believe we
must put actions on our beliefs.
What
a powerful lesson for me. I can keep
pushing uphill or I can engage God by faith and allow Him to work through me.
It’s easier and more effective when God does most of the work. Why push when
you can trust God to work through you?
Pastor
Tim
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