You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you

by David Sellnow

We’re a week into the new year … by this point 25% of new year’s resolutions have already been broken (according to research by the University of Scranton).   We try to improve ourselves, change ourselves, fix ourselves … and more often than not come up short of our goals.

I’ve worked as a pastor in congregations and have heard defeatism among members, feeling the challenges faced by the church were bigger than they could bear.  “We can’t do it.  We don’t have enough strength.”

I now work in ministry with college students and often hear them express frustration and feelings of low self-worth.  They so much want to impress people by their talents and intelligence … and at the same time feel they aren’t able to perform well enough, aren’t able to think as well as they think they should.

I’ve sat in counseling sessions with people facing various dilemmas – finances, illnesses, woes within marriage, bad habits by which they keep hurting themselves.  And generally in the midst of those conversations, their inner feelings would come out, saying, “I don’t know why I’m talking to you about this; it’s hopeless anyway.”

It’s hopeless anyway?  We’re not good enough?  We can’t do it?  Jesus would say to us, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” (Matthew 8:26).   The apostle Paul would urge us to say with him, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV). 

It’s true we aren’t strong enough on our own to make resolutions and keep them.  It’s true that we aren’t wise enough on our own to navigate a proper path through life.  It’s true that we aren’t stable enough to keep ourselves on an even keel in the midst of life’s worries.

But we have the promises of Christ, and he does not let us down.  Indeed we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.  “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Whatever resolves you have in this new year, hang onto Jesus in them and through them.  Don’t despair of your own abilities or dwell on your own weaknesses.  Your value as a child of God does not rise and fall according to how well you accomplish your tasks each day.  Christ’s love is constantly surrounding you and upholding you.  And through him, the days’ tasks become more accomplishable.   “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).