If you think you can’t, in all probability you cannot! Why? When you convince yourself that you are doomed to failure, you don’t try. When you are so certain that you can’t do it, your unbelief and lack of confidence become self-fulfilling prophecies. Long ago the wise man wrote a proverb, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
But there should be the god-factor in the equation. Are you striving to accomplish His purpose for your life? Do you realize that His strength can compensate for your weakness? Writing to the Corinthians, Paul stresses that what He lacked became God’s provision – “grace” is what He called it – adding, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).
It’s amazing what some people, who do not know that something cannot be done, accomplish. They simply do what they believe God has called them to do, and trust Him for what they lack, what they do not know, what they do not have the strength to do.
Go to the Calabar region in Nigeria today and you will still hear people talking about Mary Slessor. This Irish woman grew up in Dundee, Scotland in a tiny one-room flat without amenities. She dropped out of school to work in the mill. Everything was against her accomplishing much with her life. When she arrived in the Calabar, she learned that when twin babies were born, people believed one of them had been sired by the devil. Mary knew better and saved the lives of hundreds of babies, taking them into her home until their lives were no longer in danger. Today she is revered and remembered as the Queen of the Calabar.
Learn from her example. Whatever it is you lack, trust God to meet it completely.