2025-09 Not By Our Might

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. -Zechariah 4:6

Do you try and solve life’s problems with your own strength?

A little boy was spending Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks, his plastic pail, and a shiny, red plastic shovel. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox. The boy dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With a lot of struggle, he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. Keep in mind that he was a very small boy and it was a very large rock. When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, however, he realized that he couldn’t roll it up and over the little wall.

Determined, the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried, but every time he thought he had made some progress, the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy grunted, struggled, pushed, shoved – but his only reward was to have the rock roll back, smashing his chubby fingers.

Finally, he burst into tears of frustration. All this time the boy’s father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy’s father.

Gently but firmly, he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?
Defeated, the boy sobbed back, “But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!”
“No, son,” corrected the father kindly. “You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.” With that the father reached down, picked up the rock, and removed it from the sandbox.

How often do we forget to ask our heavenly Father. . . He patiently waits to hear us asking for His help and guidance . . .

(Author unknown)

In our leading scripture (Zechariah 4:6), God is speaking to Zerubbabel, the governor who alongside Joshua, the high priest, was overseeing the reconstruction of the temple. The temple was the place where the glory of God dwelled among his people as they were returning from exile to Jerusalem. Just as we do, they faced challenges again and again and again and setbacks again and again and again. Just like us, there were days that they were so discouraged that they wondered how they could go on. They wondered just like us, is this ever going to happen – how am I going to do this? Then as the dad in the story reminded the little boy that he had not used the power of his father, our heavenly father reminded Zerubbabel saying, not by might, nor by power, but by MY SPIRIT. And He says the same to us today.

When life gets so much harder than we can handle, we, we will not overcome by our power or might, but by the Spirit of almighty God. Not by our strength, not by our resources, not by our minds, not by our skills and gifts but by HIS spirit.

Any action that we succeed in is not ultimately through our strength but His. This is one reason that we pray – to express our need for Him. We have no strength apart from Him. As we go forward, be reminded that we have not used ALL our strength until we use God’s strength.

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