DESIRE IS NOT ENOUGH

DAY 224

Matthew 17:16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.

Just because you want to be a Surgeon doesn’t mean you can simply walk into any operating theatre to wield a scalpel. It will take more than your desire and enthusiasm.

In the Gospel today, we cannot say Jesus’ disciples had no desire to heal the young child because they went to back to Jesus wondering why they were unsuccessful. Simply, their lack of success wasn’t because they had no opportunity, one lay right before them. Neither was it because they had no will or desire, their efforts show they did. This was simply a matter of ability.

We sometimes flatter ourselves with our zeal and willingness to get things done. You do well, but that is not equivalent to ability. Your desire can serve as a fuel or drive towards the gaining of ability, but it can never serve as the replacement. We will always find these two thing about God existing in tandem through scripture: ‘he has plans to do’ and ‘He is able to do’. Thus, we see desire and ability.

Without ability, desire remains desire and will never really translate into tangible results. ‘If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully ‘(2 Timothy 2:5). So beloved, pay the lawful price to gain the ability to do something meaningful because your zeal alone will not be enough. You need ability.

#sly