1 Corinthians 1:27

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

Nothing gets me more heated on the golf course than missing short putts. I mean, come on, we’ve been playing putt putt at the beach our whole life. Plus, there is no clown’s head or ramp to increase the difficulty on the golf course. Then, I think about the “Hole In One” game on the Price Is Right. Eighty-year-old women make putts from five feet. Karen from Omaha who has never played golf in her life makes them. I, on the other hand, have knocking knees from three feet away as I anxiously await to hear the words, “pick it up, that’s good.” The pressure comes from being supposed to make those short putts.

We all have simplistic principles of our job which would seem foreign to someone outside of our chosen industry. However, for you, it is natural like eating and breathing. These skills became that way because you have been trained and performed the certain task many times over a the course of decades.

The simple spiritual aspects of our life were made so, not by our power or wisdom, but by God. It is simple for us to get up and go to the church house on Sunday morning. Unlike trips to Walmart or Food City, my wife doesn’t discuss our trips to church or whether we are going beforehand. We already have the common understanding and agreement that, but for illness, we “rejoice when they say let us go unto the house of the Lord.”

This desire to worship a Savior is not anything of us or you. This “want to” comes from the Holy Spirit who gives us the desire to worship our Savior. It isn’t anything natural. People don’t naturally want to worship Christ and attend church services. Similarly, the desire to read the Bible or participate in a Bible study is not natural to man. But for the spirit of God, who would want to spend hours of their busy week going to a church house?

Putts from three feet are confounding because we depend upon our own ability for success. We, then, remember the many times we have missed a putt from that short range in the past. Doubt begins to creep into our psyche after failure. The power of God is independent of our own strength. The more we depend upon Him in times of trial and trouble, the more times we see He is able and faithful to take care of His children.

The Enduring Word commentary explains that, “Salvation is not the achievement of human wisdom; it is the embrace of God’s dramatic, unexpected act of love at Calvary.” It is not natural for the natural man to turn to fervent prayer to God to comfort us during these times of uncertainty. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the power and desire to embrace God’s love and have that “want to” to share His love with those hurting or are anxious around us. The news headlines highlight the failures of own humanity genius. Today, let us share these powers and provisions given only from above.