Human effort and Divine activity

There is something about accomplishing a goal in my own strength that makes me feel good. When I have a vision of what I want to see happen, develop a strategy to facilitate the accomplishment of that goal, employ the appropriate resources, and then use my personal skill and abilities to make it a reality...it feels great. I think all of us have this feeling when we accomplish a goal through human effort. There is something about humans that long for a sense of accomplishment and self-actualization.

But what happens when this mindset becomes standard for believers? Where does God fit in? Oh, I know...we ask him to provide us with strength and to bless our efforts!

I dont know about you, but there is something sub-christian about that type of thinking. In fact, I would dare to say that when we strive to accomplish a spiritual or ministerial goal in our own human effort, even if we pray and ask God to strengthen and bless those efforts, we are not truly living our lives through faith in the One who died for us.

I see this type of mindset in the lives of believers (including myself) from time to time in two critical areas...

1) Spiritual Growth - How many times have we tried to "stop sinning" on our own...employed will-power as a means of dealing with a bad habit...or attempted to make changes in our spiritual life in our own strength? Trying harder, following the rules, or acting religious will never lead to spiritual transformation because those activities display a faith in yourself and not in Christ.

2) Service - this area is an extremely common area where human effort is employed, especially among clergy. When human effort becomes our source of energy and not the power of the Holy Spirit we will never truly make an impact for the kingdom. When we trust in our personal skill, our capabilities as a leader, or parade our own "good ideas" as a means of working for Christ we are not living a life of faith. None of us are smart enough, skilled enough, or energetic enough to exhibit the competence necessary for sucessfully doing God's work. It all depends on him. And we must do more than ask him to "bless and empower or efforts". Those efforts must be an outgrowth of a faith in Jesus Christ or all that will be produced is human results.

Believers need to see Divine activity in and around their lives...human effort just leads to tiredness and discouragement. I read a great verse today I wanted to share with everybody related to this topic. It is from Galatians 3:3,5.

"Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?...Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard"

I think we all could use a little more Divine activity and a little less human effort. Maybe one day we will learn that "...the righteous will live by faith".