Answers in the toolbox

Having become Christians, we know that God expects us to live a life of increasing holiness, producing fruit consistent with righteousness. But that brings me straight up against an awkward question. Are these fruits produced as a result of my efforts or is it the Lord’s doing? This isn’t merely a conundrum for theologians to contemplate over their cornflakes!  For I know how weak my will is and how fickle my heart is. If it is all down to me to produce a more holy life, the chances of me every living the life that God wants me to lead seem hopeless. Like the man of Romans 7, ‘what I want to do I do not, and what I hate I do!’ (Rom 7:15) If it is down to me,  I might as well pack up and go home now.

I know that I need God’s help if my life is to change. But saying that we should therefore just  ‘let go and let God’ doesn’t sit right either. What about passages like 2 Peter 5 – ‘Make every effort to add to your faith goodness, etc’? That doesn’t sound much like ‘letting go and letting God?’ In fact, it sounds very much like it is down to my effort after all. So I go away and tell myself to try harder, with inevitable consequences

Familiar story? Have you found yourself reduced to a confused, demoralised heap crying out with the man of Romans 7 ‘Oh what a wretched man (or woman) I am!’ If you have, let me share with you an every-day illustration which helped me sort this out.

Imagine you are trying to undo a nut and bolt, but the nut has rusted on and won’t turn, no matter how hard you try. You reach for the WD-40, spray it on, re-apply the spanner and hey presto! Off comes the nut. Now I reckon the WD-40 is a bit like the assistance the Holy Spirit gives us. There was no way that bolt was coming off without the WD-40. But imagine if a person just sprayed on the WD-40 and left it? He would sound a prize idiot complaining to the shop keeper that WD-40 doesn’t work because the nut was still attached! But that is what the person who thinks he or she can ‘let go and let God’ is like! Our DIY enthusiast needs to apply the WD-40 then get out his spanner and apply his own effort.

In the same way the Spirit’s power is essential but God has so ordained it that we still need to exert ourselves. But we do so resting in on God’s enabling - and that is the critical difference. Try it and you will see that this is true! But you’ll also find that the minute we start to think we can do it in our own strength we fall flat on our faces – which reinforces the lesson that we need to rely constantly on God’s enabling!