Decrease My Ability
It’s been really challenging, exciting, and frustrating for me to study the life of John the Baptizer for the last couple weeks of sermons at Horizon. There is so much about his life that I need to mimic, and so much of his attitude that I need to absorb. The humility that he lived with seems unprecedented in so many ways, but the way God worked through that humble attitude is undeniable. Even from the perspective of his biggest critics.
So, here’s what I’ve been praying for over the last month as I prepared to preach these messages.
“God, decrease my ability so that it becomes impossible for me to do anything without you. Keep me from relying on my talent, and force me to rely solely on your Spirit to communicate your message.”
Admittedly, this has been a pretty tough corner for me to turn. You see, nearly everything I have done in my life has relied heavily on talent. Everything that I do comes very naturally to me. If I don’t seem to have a talent or knack for something, then I quit doing it. That way the things I do can be done very well with, if necessary, very little effort. I’m not advocating this philosophy for life, but simply stating a realization that this is how I have operated for over twenty-six years. And yes, even in the last seven years of my ministry.
Public speaking comes naturally to me, and preaching is as natural for me as swimming is for a fish. But, as with many of the other things I do I have spent a large amount of time concentrating on increasing my ability in order to increase my effectiveness; when all along I should have been doing the opposite.
The mark of God’s ability to use a person is not that person’s talent, but their ability to rely on Him. I will become a more capable and effective preacher for the Kingdom of God when my abilities have decreased to the point that I simply cannot complete the task without being full of God’s grace and Spirit. If I’m full of myself there’s no room left for God, but where there is an absence of ego there is room for God to work.
So, are there areas of your life where you need to decrease your ability?
