Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

• John 15:5-8

“Prayer requires that we stand in God’s presence … proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing.
“A man once asked Dwight L. Moody, ‘How can you accept the Bible with all its mysteries and contradictions, you with your fine mind?’
“Moody replied, ‘I don’t explain it.  I don’t understand it.  I don’t make anything of it.  I simply believe it.’
“In his classic book, Prayer, Dr. O. Hallesby echoed this attitude.  He wrote, ‘Prayer and helplessness are inseparable.  Only he who is helpless can truly pray. …’”

• Honor Books Publishing, God’s Little Devotional Book on Prayer

In the Honor Books publishing devotional, there is not even a general editor mentioned or attributed, yet, so far into the book, I have been inspired by almost every one of the devotions.  And using the tile of the post and the first sentence of the quote, I suppose this post is a prayer.  “I am nothing” versus “I can do nothing” are close enough to be the same.

But that is being nothing or doing nothing without God.  With God, we can do all things.  Yet, to bring the Scripture into this, we must remind ourselves that we are branches.  We are not vines.  That is the job of Jesus.  All our existence as believers comes from the vine, from Jesus.  If we get the idea that we could do ANYTHING, we need to remind ourselves that without the vine, we would wither, dry up, and be fit for nothing other than the fire.  As Dr. Hallesby said, we are helpless on our own and must go to God in helplessness.

But I doubt if people today would be praising D. L. Moody for his response.  Today, the unbelievers bristle and scoff against ‘blind faith.’  But to Moody, it was not blind faith.  He believed it.  He lived it.

It is only blind faith to those who have no faith.  While God’s mysteries may not always be solved, we can, with the proper education and mindset, prove the ‘contradictions’ false.  Refer to Slim Jim at Veritas Domain.  He usually debunks a ‘contradiction’ about once each week.  But our faith is never truly blind.  We can see God all around us.  We can be illumined by the Holy Spirit while studying Scripture and praying over the Scripture we have studied.  God can speak to us through the Holy Spirit in many ways.  Our faith is not blind.  We may have to study the Bible more and study apologetics more to answer the questions thrown at us by unbelievers, but I have seen the Holy Spirit simply take over when in a jam.  Afterward, you may not have a clue what you said.

Let us go to God helpless.  Let us go to God with unwavering faith.  Let us go to God, knowing and professing, that without Him, we are nothing.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.