In today’s world, we like to think that each of us are independent, self-determined, reliant only on ourselves, in charge of our own destinies. We tell children, “you can be whatever you want to be!” and we emphasise that it’s all up to their own effort and hard work. We also truly believe that for ourselves. But is that really the truth? Is everything solely up to us trying our very best?
Common sense already tells us that things are not solely up to us. There are so many things out of our control, to the point that insurance policies explicitly exclude “acts of God”. And if this is true already for “un-spiritual” things, it’s even more true in the lives of those who believe in Christ.
Remember that all of humankind is naturally inclined to sin (Rom 5:12, Eph 2:1-3) and misaligned with God. It doesn’t matter how hard we try of our own accord, because we would be marching off in entirely the wrong direction, and we wouldn’t even know it. It is solely through the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, changing our hearts, that we can identify the right direction from the wrong one. And it is through the Holy Spirit’s work as our Paraclete, our Encourager, our Exhorter (John 14:16), that we can continue moving (albeit in fits and starts and often with some backsliding) towards God. The Holy Spirit also acts as our Teacher, revealing God’s Word to us and teaching us to apply it to ourselves (John 16:13), changing our lives as well as our hearts. And the Holy Spirit is the Giver of gifts (1 Cor 12) and the Producer of all spiritual fruit in our lives (Gal 5:22-23). To top it all off, we are identified as God’s children with the Holy Spirit’s indwelling.
Christians are not Christians by our own strength and efforts, but solely in our weakness and reliance on God – God has done what is needed to bring us to Him, God has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we can keep growing in Him. We need the Holy Spirit, in every moment we need Him. Thank God indeed for this great gift already given to us.