You Must Do This, I Can't

40 Days of Prayer

You Must Do This, I Can't

  
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV

Too often this passage is cited as a proof text for 'workless' faith, as if working in one's faith is actually a bad thing. It is true to say that our faith works are worthless in the scope of our personal righteousness, but it is terribly dangerous to say that we shouldn't even try.

C.S. Lewis said, "Now we cannot, in that sense, discover our failure to keep God's law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing). Unless we really try, whatever we say there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that if we try harder next time we shall succeed in being completely good. Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home. All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, 'You must do this. I can't.'

The concept of surrender within our relationship with God is one that has been widely written about. What truly does surrender mean? Surrender - to yield to the power of another - is always thought of in the context of an enemy and we therefore view it in a negative way. Yet, God is not our enemy and there should be no reluctance on our part in yielding to God. So how do we both live a surrendered life and yet prove our faith by our deeds (James 2)? As Lewis, Shaeffer and countless others have written, the way of God with men is always through the heart. Is our working and striving produced from our faith or is our working and striving to prove our faith to others? One glorifies God the other exalts ourselves. The ultimate test, Keller says, is found in our attitude when things don't go our way. Our plans and ideas don't produce the results we hoped for or even fail, we don't get the recognition we were seeking, another person wins, or life just isn't what we want (spouse, job, children, health, etc.).  It is in these moments that the true faith of our hearts are revealed. Do we rail against God or do we turn to God and say, 'You must do this. I can't.'