"I can" vs. "God Can"

Well, I'm not feeling overly inspired this morning, maybe it is has something to do with the snow, or maybe it has something to do with being tired... yeah I'll go with that one.

I attended a meeting last night, and one of the men i attended it with, reflected back on Red Green.. (if you don't know who he was, google him).. at the end of each show, they would go to the "lodge" and recite the man's pledge/prayer, that went "I'm a man, I can change, if i have too, I guess."

While we both thought it would have been funny for the men's meeting to start out like that, it didn't.
The meeting was good, but I'm still thinking about the above mentioned pledge/prayer.

While it's true that I am a man, the truth is I cannot change. even if i have to. I have no power on my own to change... the only way that I can change is if I allow God, through the working of the Holy Spirit to change me from the inside out.
The Bible, in Romans 12:2 says: "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (NLT2)

The only way that men, women, boys and girls can change, is if we allow God to change us... and He often starts by chaning the way that we think.... because what we think about is so often what we become.

I don't know about you, but I still need God to change me.... I need Him to change me from the inside out. He wants to, I just need to let Him.....then I can "figure" out what He wants me to do.....

Now, how can I rework that prayer/pledge.. "I'm a man, I can change, if God changes me..."

Doing what we should be doing..

Do you know how to catch a monkey?

There is a story that says in Africa (and India), the hunters use a technique to catch monkeys. They hollow out one end of a coconut and they put peanuts in there (I've also heard bananas…but same concept).

The monkey puts his hand in the coconut and when he makes a fist to grab the peanuts, he's trapped. The hunters will pull a string attached to the other end of the coconut and capture the monkey.

So it is with sin.

We often sin when we don’t let go of the peanuts. We often sin when we do something that we should be doing.

The bible says in 2 Samuel 11: “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.” (NIV)

David stayed home when he should have gone off to war with his men. Instead of doing what he was supposed to be doing, he took a walk on his roof one night and saw a good looking woman taking a bath on the roof top and he wanted her…

The Bible tells us that David sent one of his servants to get her, he slept with her, he got her pregnant, sent her back, found out she was pregnant, sent for her husband and tried to get him to sleep with her, but he was a better man than he was, so in turn David had her husband killed and he took Bathsheba to be his wife.

All of this mess because David did what he wasn’t supposed to do.

That is what sin is like; it makes us do some pretty stupid things.

If we want to have victoy over sin, we must do the right thing, and avoid it like I want my kids to avoid the boys..

Hebrews 12:1-2a says: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…” (NIV)

You and I can have victory over sin. It starts by doing what we are supposed to do—looking to Jesus for Help—and letting go of the peanuts!

What we need...

I read this passage this afternoon. I want you to read it, but take your time as you read it:
"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,^[a] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Heb. 4:14-16, NIV)

I found comfort in these words today. I don't know about you, but what I need the most is a God who understands me. I need a God who sympathises with me. I need a God who gets me.

this verse tells me that I have one. His Name is Jesus Christ. Jesus understands what I go through. I don't have a god who is way out in left field unable to understand me. The Bible tells me that Jesus knows what I go through, and He is able to help me get through it, because He's been there.
I need someone who will help me, and the bible tells me that I have Someone like that. His Name is Jesus.
Because I have Jesus, I can approach God's Throne to get the help I need. I believe you me, I need the help. God is not a distant God who can't possibly understand what we go through.
He is able to understand what we go through because He himself went through the same thing.

The Bible says: " Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had^[a] the power of death." ( Heb. 2:14, NLT2)

I'm thankful that God knows what I deal with. I'm thankful that God is able to handle what I deal with. He can take care of you too.