I Can’t!

I was recently helping my kids with their art lesson. We were using a how-to-draw video lesson from Creature Kids. My school-aged kids and I were drawing lions, and my four year old son wanted to join in the lesson. It didn’t take long for him to be frustrated. Frustration led to a tearful shout, “Daddy, I can’t do it!”

I have not always handled his meltdowns well. He is normally very animated in his frustration. This time he was throwing his paper and crayons and swinging his arms.

By God’s grace, I didn’t get frustrated with him in his frustration. Instead, I paused the video, told the other kids to take a break, and called my boy to come stand by me. I had him pick up his pencil, I put my hand over his, and we drew the lion together.

It was not a perfect picture. It was a bit wobbly in places, but it was a lion.

The smile on his face, the calm in his breathing, and the excitement in his voice as we drew made my day. It was his drawing. Yet, it wasn’t his alone; it was his drawing completed with my guidance and help.

As we were drawing the lion, I saw a spiritual lesson unfold in front of me. I know the illustration isn’t perfect, but it helped me. 

This is what the Lord wants from me. He wants me (and all his children) to see that we are not able to do things on our own. As I am looking at the commands of the Christian life, which I am required to obey, my response really must be, “Father, I can’t! I need you!”

This is what prayer is all about. We pray because we need God. We cry out because we are not able to do things on our own. We must obey God’s commands, but we can’t in our own strength. We pray when we really understand Jesus’ words, “apart  from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b).

God is always pleased to answer such a prayer. He provides grace for help in time of need. He is glorified when we say along with Paul, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

We must obey the Lord. We must put forth blood, sweat, and tears in the work. Yet, as we labor in the work, we must depend upon the grace of God to work in and through us. When we cry, “Father, I can’t! Help me!” Then we can also joyfully say, “…it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”