I’ve spent many seasons of defeat, demoralization and aguish in my Christian life. There were a lot of reasons for that. But they could all be boiled down to one area of ignorance: I still thought I had enough strength to do it!

What I found, however, is that only Christ can live the Christian life. Only He has the strength. St. Paul wrote, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13). Once I really got the truth down in my spirit that I live by His strength, and not my own, my life started to change.

We do a grave disservice to new disciples when we tell them to go out and try to live the Christian life. We express this to them in many ways. We say things like, “Now that you’ve accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, now it’s time for you to start pursuing holy living.” Or, “Now that you’ve been baptized, read your Bible each day and try to apply it.” Or, “You’ve been a believer for a while now—it’s time you stop smoking and drinking.” There are a thousand different variations on this theme. But each variation has a similar theme: Each rests on a belief that you can live the Christian life.

But the truth is: you can’t. And neither can I. There was only One who could live a life pleasing to God—the man, Jesus Christ. God cannot trust you to obey Him. If centuries of ever-increasing wickedness depicted in the Old Testament as the Jews tried keeping God’s commandments didn’t make that clear to you, go back and read the OT again.

Now, that’s the bad news. But here’s the good news: You’re already holy and righteous.

Listen to Pastor Mike tell us what to do when we’ve lost all our strength.