I can't but I know you can!

For it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13

Many times, we try to do things that are really important to us and we desperately want to accomplish the feat. When using just our own willpower, we seem to have a little success for a short period of time but then we end up back in the same place or worse. This is prevalent when you're trying to give up a habit.  

The changes as a result of your willpower were temporary because it was YOU doing it. Here’s one example of so many I could share.  

I remember hearing Keith Moore relaying a story about a man who came to him wanting to give up smoking. The man told Brother Keith that he had tried many, many times but always failed. He was very discouraged. Brother Keith being the Word of Faith man that he is ministered to the man but in a different way than most might think.  

He prayed with the man but then he instructed him to confess that his desire for cigarettes has gone. He even told him not to condemn himself for continuing to smoke. But Keith told him while lighting up every cigarette to follow up by confessing that his desire for cigarettes is gone. He encouraged him as often as he could to also confess that he is free from the addiction of nicotine.  

This man started doing just what Brother Keith instructed him and several months later the man came to him telling that he no longer had the smoking habit. He was totally free. Now, why? Because he stopped trying to conquer this problem with just shear willpower all by himself. When he realized God could and would help him get deliverance, he was able to be free.

When you receive the grace of God to do for you what you cannot do, you will experience effortless and permanent change on the inside, which in turn changes your actions on the outside. The Bible tells us that God works in us to give us both the will and ability to perform what He desires. It is God who removes the old wants and gives us new ones. He even gives us the power to carry them out.

Friends, look to His grace to do what you cannot do. Say, “Lord, I cannot, but you can." Then, what you experience will not merely be behavior adjustment, but true and lasting inward transformation.