Doing All Through Christ

Whenever I get worried about the future course of events in my life,
inevitably it is because I'm thinking that I'm dependent on my own personal
skills, wisdom, and physical strength to get me where I'm going. The
solution to my 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. This acknowledgement is a form of prayer. The results
of this prayer typically aren't dramatic. Usually I just get to the end of the
day and looking back I observe that everything fit together quite naturally in
a way that I couldn't have humanly outlined.

Sometimes however, the healing Christ is so awesome that it is startling.
One such event occurred in my life about 20 years ago. Throughout that
year 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. However, by 8
pm Friday night we were stuck. The computer was running, but it wouldn't
communicate with any of the terminals located 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. As I prayed, I was 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 healing
Christ 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.