Friday, December 21, 2007

Our strength or God's strength?

One of the most common things I hear chucked around in Christian circles, and I have been saying it to people too, goes along the lines of "Are you doing it on God's strength or your own strenth?"

But is this even a valid question? God hasn't yet revealed that to me biblically - would anyone like to use examples from scripture of characters who tried to do stuff on their own strenth versus with God's empowerment? Is this a New Testament thing?

I would love to hear people's opinions about this statement. What exactly does it mean? Is it biblical theology? How do we know when we are doing something in God's strenth? Isn't everything we do in God's strength - I heard someone else say that "We're only alive because God is keeping us alive", which sounds pretty true to me since God brought us into existence in the first place.

Does the question simply entail being filled with the Spirit? If so, how full do we have to be of the Spirit to be doing something in God's strength? And again, how can we be sure?

4 comments:

Jeremy Sargent said...

Hi Ryan I am trying like mad to get hold of you

Have you changed your number?
Could you text me on 027 247 1674 contact details

Merry Christmas my friend
Jeremy

Ryan O'Connor said...

Pastor nick said in his sermon this morning that it is a term that refers to how much we are trusting God.

James said...

Hey Ryan,

I hope all is going well for you.

I think the idea of Own Strength vs God's strength may be more about attitude than anything else.

The best biblical example I can think of is David and Goliath. You can hear the different attitudes in their words.
David to Goliath "You come to me with sword and spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord."

David was relying on God's strength, where as Goliath was relying on his own.

Does that make sense?

Ryan O'Connor said...

Hey that's true, thanks for the great example James!