Cornerstone to accomplishments

A buddy of mine wrote me and told me that his favorite Bible verse is Phil. 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. It’s mine too. In fact as you will understand when you read my book this verse was critical to my conversion and becoming a Christian. When I read that verse, I told the nurse who originally loaned me her personal Bible to read in the hospital while recovering from a serious car accident that this verse was a damnable lie. I told her intravenous drug addiction was a death sentence and the only permanent way to get off drugs was to be lowered six feet under in a pine box.

She snorted contemptuously and told me that God had raised Lazarus from the dead and performed all sorts of miracles and if He could do all that He could easily save my sorry tail. She said emphatically, “Jesus is God, He can do anything!”

Hmmm That made sense to me. I thought, “Ok if I can do anything I want through Christ what would it be? At this particular time, the thing that I wanted most was to change my terrible life, get off drugs, stop the violence, and lead a normal life. I prayed for God to help me to change and He did, BUT it wasn’t quite that simple.

One thing that I learned as I spent those months recovering from my car accident is that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us IF we believe. In other words we must have FAITH. Jesus said if we only have faith as much as a tiny mustard seed we can order a mountain to move and it will do so. What is there in faith that gives strength? The writer of the book of Hebrews says, Heb. 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. It is assurance and conviction, that God will be with us and that we can, through his power, do it, (“for if He is with me He will grant me power strength to do it”). Faith believes God’s promise and we must have it in order to accomplish great things.

How do we get faith like that? Paul said in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.” In other words our faith is contingent upon hearing the word of God. I hear the word of God daily by reading and studying the Bible and listening to other Christians espouse their understanding of it. I have done so for years, right up through this very morning and as a result my faith is unbelievably strong and I used it to miraculously transform my life.

I can do and you can do all things, (within the will of God for our lives), through Christ who strengthens us, provided we believe and our faith is strong. There is power in faith to not only overcome the temptations of the world but power to climb our own personal mountains, mountains so high and so steep as to seem to be impossible. But, Jesus tells us all things are possible “with God.” Matt. 19:26. Keep your faith strong my brethren and sisters, study God’s word like you have never done before this coming New Year and see for yourself as you achieve the mighty miracles that God will assist you to perform in your lives.

1 John 5:4,
And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.