I can't, but You can

I have finally finished Stanley's book, Louder than Words, and it was better than I thought it would be. To be a little confessional, I started it once before but wasn't completely sold on reading it. I sort of muddled through about 70 pages of it and then sat it aside to tackle something more "flashy", I guess. It was for Desire that I kept harping on for a while here. But, I decided that I wasn't going to try and read anything else before I finished this book. It was better than I expected. It did start slower than I though but that was because Stanley was slowly building a foundation to set his idea on.

I am not going to go into the whole book, but mainly am focusing on where Stanley suggests that we start with this idea of changing our life to a life of character. To start on this journey, you have to realize that if you try and do it by yourself that you will fail. Depending on your resolve, you might last longer than others, but you are relying on yourself rather than God. One of the more poignant things that Stanley hits on is the idea that when we accept the gift of salvation, we have to realize that it is totally God's power to save us, nothing that we do. The question then is why do we think that we can then change our daily life without God? Instead, we focus on doing good things. The problem is that Paul in Romans doesn't say to be transformed by rededicating your life, nor by making promises to God, or feeling extra sorry, or praying really long prayers, or filing out a card and joining a church. These are the things that we try and do. Instead it says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2 NKJV)"

The renewing is a process that produces character like God. This verse tells us that our transformation does not hinge on the depth of our commitment alone. Our commitment may wane back and forth. There are times in our life when we know that all that we want to do is follow whatever God has for us, but there are times that we aren't as eager to even talk to God, let alone find out what He wants us to do. Christianity is not an event but a process. Through renewal the wisdom and truth of God become the foundation of our thinking and eventually our behavior.

Stanley breaks it down to two approaches, the religious and the relational. The religious approach is very attractive because in our minds it makes sense. The bible calls the whole "earn your way" faith as walking according to the flesh. You are doing what feels right to you. What feels right to you changes from day to day, but God doesn't change. Thus, we look at the relational approach. Our life as a Christian is about our relationship. Everything that God does is in order to draw you into His love. Thus, God never intended for us to shift out of the "I can't, You can" way of thinking that was intricate for us to accept salvation. That is supposed to be the perspective that we maintain throughout our Christian experience. We don't have the power to save ourselves, nor do we have the power to save ourselves from our daily encounters with the power of sin.

Now I think its pretty obvious that most of that above isn't from me. Its me borrowing heavily from Stanley to get the idea across. But, I said all that to get to this point. Once you realize that you can't do it alone, Stanley offers a "baby step". I decided to start here myself. When I am doing my morning reading and praying, I envision what I think will go on during the day. Its not that hard, most of us have days that are very predictable. We know where we will or won't be tempted. As you see the areas that you struggle in, pray to God "I can't; You can". I like this idea. We claim the dependency that we have for God even before it starts. This whole Christian life thing is not God saving us and then setting us about to try our best. Thats why He gave us part of Himself to help direct our paths. Why wouldn't we use it?

This was just one of the areas that I am starting in. There are others about using scriptural truth to combat lies that come up in our daily lives. I will be working on that as well, but this is the first "baby step".