Monday, April 29, 2019

Half Lived: Don't Leave Him Out


“Half-Lived: Don’t Leave Him Out”
By Zach Wood
Philippians 4:13 NLT
I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.

I have had this Scripture memorized for as long as I can remember.  I am sure I learned it in Sunday School when I was just a little guy.  I have used this Scripture in previous devotionals, in sermons and in Bible studies.  It is one of the most popular Scriptures quoted today.  Recently, I saw this verse in a new way and it really hit home with me. 

I thought about how so often we cut this passage off after “everything”.  We live out “I can do everything”, and then leave out “through Him who gives me strength.”   We live so much of our lives with the confidence that we can do most things all by ourselves and leave God on the back shelf telling Him that we will consult Him if things get a difficult.  We often think we can live life all by ourselves and in our own strength. 

We quote this passage so much and verbally proclaim that we can do always do all things through Christ, but then the actual ways we live out our lives shows the complete opposite.  We do our own thing and mentally convince ourselves to believe that we can do this life all on our own. 

I am so guilty of only living half of this verse.  I often live as though to leave God out of my life.  This is sadly true for so many of us.  We say that we can do all things through Him, but we only live half of the verse.  Jesus gives us a life to live that is unlike the life of our past.  He gives us true life. 

Is this verse half-lived in your life?  Are you trying to do everything all on your own?  Are you living solo?  We all know that we cannot live our lives without the strength of Christ.  We know we need Him.  We know He is the only One Who can get us through life.  However, each of our days is so often lived without us consulting Him and allowing Him to lead. 

We go to great lengths every day to make sure we have all we need to succeed through the day from the morning till the night.  Why not make certain that we go to great lengths to ensure that we are letting God lead our lives each day? 

My prayer is that we not only work to memorize great verses like these, but that we also remember to live them completely out, not leaving God out of what we do.  We can do all things, but we can only do them successfully through Christ Who gives us true lasting strength.

I can do everything…..through Christ…..Who gives me strength.

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