Saturday 2 July 2011

It's not by might, it's not by power but by my Spirit says the Lord!

The words of the hymn, “Its not by might, its not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord” ring deep and true in today’s context of cut throat competition, stress, and countless failures. No wonder disillusionment sets in  when you face one failure after another. What we don’t realise is that it is not by our own might, nor by our own power that we can achieve success but rather it is through the Spirit says the Lord. We need to realise that it is not through our own wisdom, but rather through the Almighty Lord’s Wisdom that we can overcome difficulties and accomplish difficult tasks! Unfortunately we think we can overcome mountains through our own abilities only!

A prayer by an unknown author reads as follows:

God you provide us with wisdom when we are

confused; strength when we are weak…God

be in my head, and in my understanding;

God be in my eyes, and in my looking; God be

in my mouth and in my speaking; God be in

my heart, and in my thinking!

 

And so as the words in the prayer suggest, it is only when God becomes the driver of our lives that we might achieve some semblance of success in climbing mountains of difficulties! This is specially true when you have a vocation or a calling in life. Often, faced by deadlines, difficult targets, and competitions we put in all our effort, might, power, and experience, and yet come out losers. This is because in our struggle for success we might have forgotten the simple fact that to succeed, we need the Almighty Lord’s Wisdom.

Often, faced by a succession of failures we tend to become distraught, disillusioned, hopeless, despairing, and we lose faith in the Almighty Lord. This is exactly something to be avoided! Life, they say is not a bed of roses! It was never meant to be as such! To live a life without struggle or hardships is not to live at all! We die when all hardships and difficulties end! To be burdened by difficulties and to collapse means failure, but to move forward in spite  of burdens means to succeed!

Life in the Old testament was difficult! The problem before Moses was to lead a great mass of Hebrews from Sinai to Canaan. To make things even more difficult was the fact that Moses had never travelled beyond Mount Sinai! Moses thought  Jethro was the best answer to the problem in hand. Thus when Jesus said, (Matt. 6.34), “Moses seems to make a mistake when he tried to substitute a man (Jethro) for God-the present for the future, for who can be a substitute for God? Those who trust in the Lord need not be afraid…”. Fortunately God took lead and delivered Israel to Canaan! According to St.Paul, “if we have hope only in this world we are of all men most miserable”. It is not just hope in this world that grants us success. Worldly power, might, and even talent are not enough to grant you success, you need God’s wisdom too! Christ alone can lead us safely on! Have faith!

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