I can do it!
Recently my good friend Jeff Lucas wrote some stuff about
people saying, “With God all things are possible.” “So with God you can do
anything?” He went on to say that he/you everybody who reads that scripture, couldn’t
do somethings. “Yes - we can’t do anything, (like fly without tickets or speak
Chinese unless we learn it) but we can do all things through Christ who
strengthens - in other words, what he has called us to.
Peter got out of the
boat. The others didn’t.” He also noted he couldn’t fly without an aeroplane. He
cannot breathe underwater. He went on to list other things that he was not good
at all. It was all very true and, as usual, Jeff expressed it in a very
readable and funny way. You will know
that if you have read any of his many books how he writes things.
He was, of course, unpacking
that verse of scripture in the Bible that says “I can do all things though
Christ who strengthens me”. You can find
that passage in Philippians Chapter 4 verse 13.
I often hear those “well meaning” “spiritual” people say
things like, “You can do it with God! We can do all things!”
It’s obvious that when Paul was talking to the Philippians
Christians, he was explaining that he had had bad times and good times, and
that God was able to take him through any kind of time.
So, “Yes!” Jeff is right. However, I do get a bit bored with
those “I live in a box people.” You know the type. I am referring to those who
are always telling others, “It can’t be done”, or worse, “This is the way it is
done and there is no other method or alternative”.
This breed of “wisdom” often surfaces in some
people when they hear somebody thinking out of the box they exist in.
It has seemed to me for a long time, that if one knows –
that is, if one, really knows God, then they have, (or, “should have”, because
often those claiming to know Him don’t seem to) a very broad view of life.
Meaning; where is it all going? What’s the plan?
With those who are knowing God in a intimate way, it is a bit like looking from the top of a mountain and seeing further
than those who are down in the valley. This releases them so that they are seeing
the alternatives, conceiving the possibilities, perceiving the new – and even
the impossible.
It also seems to me that that we can actually do a lot of
things because God is with us that we would never be able to do if He
wasn’t.
I know that my atheist friends
struggle with that idea. They struggle with the idea of answered prayer. They
struggle with the idea of God intervening on behalf of someone else. They
struggle with the whole idea of miracles - boy do they struggle with that one! “It’s
all just one big accidental coincidence”, I hear so often. I have had a lot to say about coincidences. Look
up:
Their negative rationale goes on. And whilst others struggle
with answered prayer, God’s interventions, Miracles and the like, I struggle
with an answer that would satisfy my life experience of knowing God. I am
talking of an answer that would properly explain my own answered prayer. I am
thinking of such as moments when I find £10.00 at my feet via the natural wind after
a brief one line prayer immediately answered.
I am remembering witnessing one
woman’s blind eyes opening and acknowledging colour after laying hands on her
and being amused at her sudden knowledge of the colour of her slippers.
Coming out of court recently, after a case where our own lawyer
told us, “This is what has to happen - and it will happen just like this”, and then
listening to the Judge say something totally different. That lawyer, who I don’t think shared my
expectations of prayer being answered, as he walked out of the court, leaned
over to me and said, “I have worked in this court for many years as a lawyer. Today
I have witnessed a miracle”.
Of course,
I know those who live in their mind set boxes where these sort of things do not
happen, will work hard at a good explanation, and end up smiling sympathetically
at my uneducated naivety.
For me, and I know many like me, we are happy that God is
with us, that He does answer prayer, and that Miracles do happen. Maybe it is
that boxed mindset that says, “This is how it works”, that keeps some from
experiencing a more exciting way to live.
No! I can’t fly, or breathe under water, or do lots of
things even though God is with me. But boy oh boy, there are things that can be
done that take my breath away - metaphorically speaking of course.
So there are lots of times when people say,
“You cannot do that!” “It can’t be!” “We don’t do it!”
Excuse me, but I did!
Edited by KL
W. 869
