I Cannot Act By Myself

These are startling words, coming from the lips of Jesus (John 5:30). We tend to think of Him as all-powerful, yet here He is, telling us He is all-helpless. His authority and power were not His own, but given by His Father. His aim was not His own will (see John 5:30) but the will of Him who sent Him. It is a piece of huge arrogance in us to think we can manage by ourselves. We’ll manage, all right, but all we shall ever succeed in doing by ourselves is making a mess of our lives. If our aim is the same as our Master’s, to do the will of the Father, we cannot act by ourselves. This means we must be consistently asking for help and accepting whatever help God sends.
“Lord, this is not quite what I meant,” is sometimes our response to His answer.
“What is your aim?” He asks us then, “Your will or Mine?”
“Then remember: you cannot act by yourself.”

The Music of His Promises by Elisabeth Elliot