Doing all through Christ

"Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, ..." II Corinthians 3

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Philippians 4

Whenever I get worried about the future course of events in my life, inevitably its because I'm thinking that I'm dependent on my own personal skills, wisdom, physical strength, etc to get me where I'm going. The solution to these concerns is to remind myself, as Jesus himself did, "I can do nothing on my own" (John 5). The apostle Paul must of felt this way too. Many times he tells his fellow Christians that Christ is his source of strength and competency.

Christ, the power of God's presence, the presence of God's power, the divine influence ever-present in human consciousness - this is what I am dependent on for all that I accomplish. Acknowledging this daily helps to keep me on course. The results of this acknowledgement typically aren't dramatic. Usually I just get to the end of the day and looking back observe that everything fit together quite naturally in a way that I couldn't have humanly outlined.

Sometimes however, the Christ-action is so awesome that it is startling. One such event occurred in my life about 20 years ago. Throughout 1983 I was involved in a project to setup a large computer system. There were many obstacles to be overcome, but I prayed constantly for guidance and each problem was solved. In late September we were coming to a deadline when the computer had to be installed. Each day there were challenges- electricians worked slowly, air condition installers didn't show up, wiring had to be re-done, computer parts were defective. I stuck to my prayers and progress came slowly but steadily. It looked like by working all weekend we could get the job done by the appointed time. About 8 pm Friday night we were stuck. The computer was running, but it wouldn't communicate with any of the terminals spread throughout the building. There was no one we could call for help until Monday. I went over to a corner of the room and began praying. My thoughts went over all the challenges that had been met to date and suddenly the thought came to me clearly and strongly "God doesn't take you halfway. God didn't bring you this far to leave you high and dry." I knew we were going to succeed somehow - that God would help us. I had been leaning against the computer's printer which had been printing out documents for some time. The stack of papers that had printed was already several inches thick. At that moment I looked down at the printer and the page coming out said "IMPORTANT - Please Read". On the page was a short message that essentially said, "Due to a recent engineering change, you have to do "X" before you do "Y". This procedure solved our problem and we were able to continue and finish the installation on time. I asked the fellow working with me if he had known what was printing out. He said no, he had thought it was information on other matters unrelated to the installation.

So where did this message come from? Does God send messages through computers? I don't know. The one thing that I am sure of is that the Christ-influence caused me to find the message when I needed it. That seems to be the way God works. We can't just lie in bed all day and let God do everything. We have to get up and go about whatever our work is, but we need to continually remember that the Christ is working through us and is our source of strength and competency and success.