If you have ever spent any time around a toddler, you will hear these words: “I do it myself.” Usually, it is something that the child cannot do themselves despite all of the determination in the world. Sometimes it is even a little comical watching them. I have to wonder if God sometimes laughs to himself when watching us say “I do it myself.”
We all prefer to feel self-sufficient. We don’t want to need anyone. We often love giving to people because it makes us feel good, makes us feel needed. However, we just as often don’t like being on the receiving end because it makes us feel vulnerable. We prefer thinking that we are bullet-proof. It feels safer.
The truth is that we need help. We need God. He isn’t some capricious entity who likes to play with us like a cat toying with a mouse before it moves in for the kill. He is a loving father who only wants to help us, a help we need despite our determination to do it alone.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Grace is an unearned gift. We can’t do anything to deserve it or earn it. We can only receive it. Once we have grace, then we can share it with others, but we have to remember that it is God’s grace and not our own. We can’t do it alone.
Maybe it is time to hand God the thing we are trying to do alone, and let Him help. Like a loving father, He is waiting for us to ask and relinquish our grip so that He can do a work beyond what we ever imagined accomplishing alone.