The Alpha of Competence

UV 2959/10000 The Alpha of Competence
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God
2 Corinthians 3 v 5

Our competence is of God. This is the reason St Paul wrote, “ I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us.” The Lord supplies not just our need but the inner competence and strength and wisdom needed by us to fulfil His purpose on earth. Jesus proved in many ways during His earthly sojourn that He alone is omni-competent even as the Father is omnipotent. He could heal all types of diseases. He walked on water. He calmed the storm. He gave sight to the born blind. He enabled the crippled to walk. He resurrected the dead. He resurrected Himself when He lay dead in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. He did all this and more without any human help. He answered all the trick questions of His adversaries. He defeated the enemy in all the temptations posed by the latter.
Jesus replaces our weaknesses with His strengths. He blesses our gifts, talents and inborn strengths so that these become productive and useful. People in all kinds of professions and situations have prayed to Jesus and received amazing revelations, grace to do that which they would not have done in their natural selves. He uses our flaws to work His grace and power in. He gives us extraordinary power to triumph in all the challenges and difficulties we face in life. We only need to expand our faith, exercise it and ask for that ability which we lack or that which we need. As a student, when I needed the studying skills and presentation skills to excel, He taught me new methods and imparted the needed wisdom and knowledge and understanding. As a police officer, handling tough law and order and crimes, He gave me the grace to emerge victorious out of it. The Lord imparts His competence to us in a variety of ways- through the gift of the Holy Spirit, through a word of knowledge or wisdom, through anointing with a new hitherto unused or unknown ability, through divine intervention, by sending His angel of help, by sending us aid through humans with the particular gift or ability we ourselves lack.

The trouble is that we often doubt if Jesus can do it and if we believe He can do it, will He do it for me or in this situation? Jesus said, “Ask and you shall receive.” We shall receive the omni-competence He alone can impart. At the end of whatever we are attempting, we should not forget to give the credit and glory to Jesus as St Paul did in these words- “Yet not I but by the grace of the Lord.” Like Paul, we need to define ourselves as “ I am what I am by the grace of Jesus.”