Luke 18:26-27

I am reminded of God’s words in Genesis to Abraham:

13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son." Gen 18:13-14 (NIV)

Is anything too difficult for the One who calls all things into existence? Certainly not! When men are at a loss, God is not. Even the changing of the stony heart of a person into a heart of flesh can be made possible through the powerful workings of our Heavenly Father. What is required from Christ is far too difficult for man to accomplish sans God’s mighty working power from within him – we simply do not possess the achieving power in and of ourselves. Scripture tells us, like the rich young ruler, those that are unaware of their spiritual poverty in ignorance claim:

17 You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Rev 3:17 (NIV)

This, my friends, is why we desperately need, what Matthew Henry calls, a “contrary leaning” given only by the grace of God:

“There are such difficulties in the way of our salvation as could never be overcome but by that grace of God which is almighty. ‘What is impossible with men is possible with God.’ His grace can work on the soul, so as to alter the bent and bias of it, and give it a contrary leaning.” Matthew Henry

Let’s face it, the Christian life is impossible to live consistently in the flesh. It totally goes against our human nature. A quick reading of Jesus’ Words in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7) will confirm this. The Christian life is made possible only through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit’s presence within a life.

60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" 61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. John 6:60-63 (NIV)

“It is not a question of our equipment but of our poverty, not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into us.” Oswald Chambers

“The Lord sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves.” D. W. Moody

“The Christian way is different: harder and easier. Christ says, ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you... No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down...Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked – the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. I will give you Myself: My own will shall become yours.’” C.S. Lewis

20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" Gal 2:20-21 (NIV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Cor 5:17 (NIV)

Let the Stable Still Astonish

“Let the stable still astonish: Straw – dirt floor, dull eyes, dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen; crumbling, crooked walls; no bed to carry that pain, and then, the Child, rag-wrapped, laid to cry in a trough. Who would have chosen this? Who would have said: ‘Yes, let the God of all the Heavens and Earth be born here, in this place?’ Who but the same God who stands in the darker, fouler rooms of our hearts and says, ‘Yes, let the God of Heaven and Earth be born here – in this place.’” Leslie Leyland Fields

“O love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee. I give Thee back the life I owe, that in Thine ocean depths its flow, may richer fuller be. O light that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to Thee. My heart restores its borrowed ray, that in thy sunshine’s blaze its day, may brighter fairer be. O joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to Thee. I trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain, that morn shall tearless be. O cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from Thee. I lay in dust life’s glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red, life that shall endless be.” George Matheson