Will I Be Able? Can I Do This?

Let me ask you a question, my brothers and sisters. I don’t know whether at some point you have asked yourself, “Will I be able to do this?” I don’t know whether you have ever found yourself in a situation in your life where, at some point, you have said to yourself, “Will I be able to do this? Will I be able to carry this out?” Maybe at your job, or suddenly you are faced with a new project and they are placing that project in your hands, and suddenly you tell the boss, or your boss, “Yes, no problem,” but inside you are like, “Wow, am I going to be able to do this?”

Or maybe you are a student at a university or college, or however you want to say it, and suddenly you come across a subject that has you completely blocked—you are totally stuck on that subject—and day after day you come into the classroom asking yourself, “Wow, will I be able to do this?”

Maybe you are a father or a mother, whether your children are young or you already have teenage children, and who knows, perhaps your children have already left the nest and are married and having children of their own now, and you are asking yourself, “Wow, will I be able to do this? Will I be the kind of father, the kind of mother, that these children need?” Or with your husband, with your wife—have you ever asked yourself that? Amid the different conflicts that may arise in a marriage relationship, at some point you find yourself alone in a corner of the house, in the living room, or in the dining room, or in the basement, and you sit down and ask yourself, “Wow, will I be able to be the kind of husband or wife my spouse needs?”

Or if you are a single man or a single woman—not to leave you out either—and you are there in your daily struggle, and your hormones go up and down, and you are trying to live in light of the Word, and you want to be faithful to what God requires of you at this time in your life, and sometimes things become so, so intense that you say to yourself, “Wow, will I be able to do this?”

Will I be able to carry on with this life? Or when will my time come, when this life of mine will change? Will I be able to do this? The point is that at different moments, at different stages, wherever you and I may find ourselves, we know very well that we have asked ourselves, “Will I be able to do this? Will I be capable of doing it?”

It occurs to me to say that there are times when we find ourselves tempted to do evil, and even in that context this question arises in our minds: “Wow, will I be able to do this?” You pass by the liquor store on the corner and something in your body craves it, and you say to yourself, “Wow, will I be capable of going back there again?” Yes, in many ways we are always asking ourselves, “Will I be capable? Will I be able to do this?”

And let me tell you something, my brothers and sisters: we are not alone in feeling this way. Different people in different places around the world are struggling with that same question at this very moment. At this very moment, as you and I are sharing this word, someone is asking themselves, “Will I be able to do this? Will I be able to carry this out? Will I be able to respond to this challenge that has been placed before me?”

Even in the Bible there are countless cases of people, and even entire nations, that at some point asked themselves, “Will I be able to live in light of this standard? Will I be able to face that other nation?” And those nations tended to look at themselves as though they could not do it. And I understand, my brothers and sisters, that it is all a matter of perspective. What matters is how we view the situation in our minds and in our emotions.

If we view those challenges through our own human eyes, our capacity to believe that we can do something will be smaller. Because, one way or another, in our human nature we always tend to see ourselves as insignificant. But when we look at those situations, face them head-on through God’s eyes, from God’s perspective, our capacity rises; it is as though it gets an upgrade to another level.

And I understand, my brothers and sisters, that God longs and desires for us to see ourselves through His eyes. You know, God is a God of peace. Why do I say this? Because when we face those challenges, we often become anxious. Anxiety tries to dominate us and completely neutralize us. And when I say that God is a God of peace, it is because God wants you to be at peace.

The text in Hebrews, chapter 13—go there with me—verse 20, says:

“…And the God of peace, who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, make you fit for every good work so that you may do His will, doing in you what is pleasing before Him through Jesus Christ, to whom we give all glory forever and ever. Amen…”

Look at these words: the God of peace. That is how this text begins: the God of peace. Why is that, as I told you? If we let ourselves be carried away by those challenges life brings, those challenges of the unknown, those challenges that make us ask ourselves, “Can I do it or can’t I do it?” our human tendency is to respond anxiously.

If you are one of those people who can remain really cool and calm in the face of any challenge—this is a piece of cake—I want to sit at your feet and learn a little from you.

But if you are sometimes like me, when I face a challenge, perhaps my face looks calm, but inside I am in a boat in the middle of a storm: “Lord, get up, because I’m sinking!” That is where I see this idea that God is a God of peace, a God of shalom, who even in spite of the circumstances wants us to be confident, at rest in Him, waiting on Him, waiting on His promises.

Just as He is the only one who can bring peace to every corner of the world, He can also bring peace to every corner of your mind and your heart. Every corner of your mind and your heart, even the most hidden places where perhaps you do not even remember that you have that space within you—even there, God can bring peace.

Not only that: He raised our Lord and great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, from the dead. I tell you this, my brothers and sisters: if, at the most overwhelming moment of His life, God had the power to raise His Son, how much more will He have the power to respond to whatever situation we may find ourselves in?

Imagine for a minute what God suffered as He watched His Son being tortured on the cross. Every punch, every slap they gave Him, He felt it too; He suffered it. Although He knew that it was a purpose, a plan that had already been laid out, He still suffered it and felt it—that pain of seeing His Son dying on the cross. Did God feel anxious? Did God feel desperate?

One way or another, that situation must have caused Him pain, but He exercised a power that surpassed the power of death to raise His Son and place Him, seat Him beside Himself once again, seated in glory, to have Him sit and reign beside Him throughout all ages, eternally, giving Him a name that is above every name.

If God could do that with His Son, how much more will He be able to do with us? “Oh, the callus on my foot hurts…” God can heal a callus—and I am bringing it down to a level as simple as that—but it is not that I am diminishing God’s ability. No, God is capable of doing much more. God is capable of comforting a man or a woman who has lost a child and turning them into instruments of strength for others. That is something only God can do.

God can use a person who has been told, “You have six months to live because of your illness,” and God can use that person to become an instrument of healing for others. That is something only God can do. God can take a person who is depressed, sunk in their own circumstances, and turn them into an instrument of strength, support, and encouragement for others, completely healing and restoring that person. God can do it.

God has the ability to do it. He is our Good Shepherd. It is an affirmation from Psalm 23. How does it go? “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. I shall not want.” We are not talking only about things in the refrigerator or things in the pantry; we are talking about you and your life personally, in its most intimate aspects, about all those things you may need in your life: wisdom to make a decision concerning your business, your marriage, your relationship with your children, or even your connection here in the church—how to serve. God can speak to you at those levels.

God can meet those needs in your life, in your heart. God can do it. Because He is your Shepherd, and He makes sure that you lack nothing. Why is that, my brothers and sisters? Because there is a covenant, and we know very well that God does not break His covenants; God fulfills them. There is a covenant of blood.

Do you remember that message from Sunday? That covenant made with blood is an incorruptible covenant; it cannot be broken. It is an eternal covenant. And that is the covenant He has made with you and that He has made with me. We may try to break and violate that covenant, or nullify that covenant, forget that covenant, and live our lives however we want. But you know what? Even if we do that, the Lord will uphold His side of the covenant and will be there watching over you, seeking you, helping you. He always fulfills His side. He knows that there is a covenant binding Him to your life and binding you to Him as well.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, God is the one who equips us. May that same God equip us with all those good things so that we can do His will. If I were to ask how many of you feel capable today—do not raise your hands. If I were to ask you, so that you could reflect in your mind and heart, “Do you feel capable? Do you feel capable of doing God’s will in whatever way it may be manifested in your life?” If there is even a drop of doubt in your mind or heart, as the book of James rightly says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to everyone and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

Out of the abundance of His riches in glory, God is willing to give you the things you need. He is the one who gives His gifts so that His body, His church, may grow, according to First Corinthians, chapter 12, which states it very clearly there: God is the one who gives gifts through His Spirit. He equips some in one way and others in another so that the body may grow in a way that is very complex, yet complete at the same time.

If you need your life to bear good fruit, God, through His Spirit, is the one who enables that fruit to grow within you. According to Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22, what is the fruit of the Spirit? Love, peace, patience, joy, kindness, gentleness, self-control, faith. Against all these things there is no law; there is no law that can stand against them.

If you do not feel capable, in your character as a person, of carrying on a healthy relationship with another person, look, ask God to manifest the fruit of His Spirit within you, to equip you with the fruit of His Spirit, with that sense of love, patience, and kindness toward others around you. In fact, toward yourself as well, so that you may live in harmony with others around you. He makes you capable.

Never say, “No, my relationship is beyond repair; this is over.” Do not bury yourself seven feet underground too quickly. Ask God, “God, equip me to live in light of that fruit of Your Spirit, of the gifts of Your Spirit. Help me to live, my God, as You ask and command me to live.”

“Yes, but Pastor Omar, it isn’t easy; people keep up their old ways.” “Lord, even if people keep up their old ways, help me live in light of Your Word, Lord. You are the one who equips me to live in light of this. You are the one who equips me not to break the other person’s head, but instead to heal their wounds. You are the one who helps me, the one who equips me to do that.”

He makes us competent, my brothers and sisters. Have no doubt about this. Why do I say this? He is the one at work in you. I love this part of the verse when it says that He does in us what is pleasing to Him through Jesus Christ. You have heard that phrase, haven’t you? The one that says, “God working in us and through us.” That is what this text is getting at.

When He equips you, He is working within you. It is as though He gets inside you; through His Spirit, He enters deep into your heart and begins to move you, begins to stir you, begins to reveal things there within those most hidden corners we were talking about. He begins to reveal those areas and begins to guide you so that He may deal with you.

The Word says it: those whom God loves, He disciplines. And that discipline does not mean that He is going to keep striking them with a leather belt. That discipline means that He is going to show them the path He wants them to follow. It is a correction; it is a lesson that He is giving, that He is providing to that person. Because He wants His sons and daughters to live in light of His principles, in light of His commands, in light of His statutes. That is what God longs and desires for us.

And so that we may live in light of that, He is willing to enter, to get involved and work with you, to take a scalpel and open up the most delicate places in your life, but treat them with the hand of the finest surgeon and perform those operations within you. Because by doing that within you, He knows that He will be able to reach others.

God in you and through you. God equips you, and through you he manages to bring blessing to other people. My brothers and sisters, I close my thought this way: all of us, in different ways, have our challenges in life. Just today, before beginning the service, I faced a challenge. And thank God that he places other parts of the body there to help when someone may not be fully prepared or equipped to deal with that situation. That is God sending his angels, God placing people around us, and I thank God for that, because in that way I see how the body of Christ intervenes, one part helping another, one part moving with another, and it does not mean that one part is wrong and the other is right. No, it is that the body, in its functions, is working together, and God, through his Spirit, is seeking how to connect all those parts to one another and have them work with one another to heal us, to restore us, so that we may all be part of a very strong, thoroughly strengthened body.

This situation I experienced today teaches me to love people even more and not to react in a human way, but rather to love people all the more. Because that is what God commands, what God asks of us. Each one of us, whatever the manner, whatever the situation, God is there, ready to work, to transform our lives and make us into the kind of man and woman he desires us to be.

Certainly, my brothers and sisters, I am not trying to point a finger at anyone here, but I am sure that all of us identify with this in light of this word. God is the one who is there to equip us, to teach us how to live and not react according to the patterns of this world, but rather to respond according to the patterns, the standard, of his Word. That is how he longs and desires for us to live.

My prayer and my desire, my brothers and sisters, is that moment by moment, minute by minute—because this is something that happens every second of life—we are dealing with each of these situations. When we least expect it, a situation arises that puts these principles to the test, calls them into question, casts doubt on them. When you least expect it, something happens and you are like, “Wow, where did this come from? I wasn’t prepared for this. Will I be able to do this?” Look, in the name of Jesus, you can.

Jesus is in you. He is working in you, and if a challenge comes, if a new circumstance arises, he is there to equip you, to prepare you, to teach you the path to follow. Do not make the situation your enemy; instead, allow the situation to become your learning laboratory, so that you can see the hand of God working in you and working in others around you.

If we can say amen to this word, I invite you to stand, and we are going to pray. Beloved God, we are before your presence, Lord, having received this word, Lord, a word so profound, yet we know, Lord, that it can reach just as deeply into our lives, into our hearts. That is how your Word is, Lord: it reaches into the deepest part of our being, discerning the intentions of our hearts and revealing to us how we are, Lord, so that we may align ourselves more and more with the desires of your heart and not with our own, Lord.

Father, I plead with you that, in your sovereignty, these words that have been shared, Lord, may reach the heart of each of my brothers and sisters, and that it may be you, Lord, who is at work. Continue that task, that work, Lord, in the midst of our lives: teaching us how to see our lives through your eyes and not through our own, Jesus; to see ourselves as your sons and daughters, Lord; and to be able to receive from you, Lord, the equipping that only you give, that only you can give, to live life, Lord, in the different facets, in the different contexts in which we may move—as men, women, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, fathers or mothers, employees or employers. Whatever the case may be, Lord, may we be able to see ourselves through your eyes and allow this word to run freely and give life, Lord, in our midst.

Teach us to live, Lord. Teach us to live in the light of your Word. And I pray, Father, that this word may bear its fruit, Lord, that this word may not return empty, but may fulfill the purpose for which it was sent today. I ask for your blessing upon each of my brothers and sisters, Lord, tonight. I ask for your protection over every one of them, Lord, so that when we leave here and go to our homes, Lord, you may take us there in peace and bring us there safely; that you may grant us restorative sleep, Jesus; and that, if you so permit, when we awaken tomorrow, we may rise with renewed strength and energy to face any challenge that tomorrow may bring. And when we face those challenges, Lord, may we be able to say to ourselves, “I can do it because the Lord is at work in me. The Lord is the one who equips me. The God of peace who raised the Lord from the dead can raise me up out of this situation and take me to the place where he wants us to be.”

We thank you, Jesus, and to you we give all the glory, all the praise, and all the honor. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. Brothers and sisters, may the Lord bless you, may the Lord keep you, may the Lord make his face shine upon you and grant you his peace. Greet one another. Have a good night, my brothers and sisters. Blessings.