You Can Only Do What You Can Do

John the Baptist came preaching and baptizing. Dressed in camel hair and leather and eating gross desert stuff he must have cut quite a figure. Mark tells us that the "whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were flocking to him." Guess he caused quite a commotion in his day.

The people to whom John preached confessed their sins and were baptized by John in the Jordan River. Imagine, the whole countryside and the entire population of the capital city experiencing spiritual revival and a God-wrought change of heart. Nothing like that had happened since the whale belched up Jonah at the doorstep of Nineveh.

But here's John, preaching a baptism of repentance. Here's John, dressed like a desert hermit calling people to identify, acknowledge and turn away from their sins and commit through baptism to living a new life, and everybody's buying in. Here's John not letting folks get away with anonymous conversion but making a public event of evangelism, and people are responding. Here's John, preaching, baptizing, doing what he can for the kingdom.

But here's John recognizing that for all the success he appears to be having in ministry, he can only do what he can do. He says to his audience, "Someone more powerful than I will come after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." John recognizes God has given him some spiritual power, but it's nothing compared to what the One will bring. John acknowledges God has given grace for repentance but there is yet more, more that John cannot give. More than what John's preaching can initiate. More than baptism with physical water can accomplish. Here's John telling the people, "You can only do what you can do."

Today, you can act in faith. You can preach the gospel. You can enjoy a measure of success, but in reality, you can only do what you can do. The real glory, the real Spirit comes not from the hands of men but from the heart of God. We can baptize with water, but only Jesus can baptize with the Holy Spirit, God Himself in the heart and lives of believers. We can minister to the outside, but only Jesus can minister to the inside.

And we need to be okay with this arrangement. "I am not worthy to stoop down and untie His shoes," John said. He felt no need to compete with Jesus. He felt no need to exalt himself. He needed only to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus. It was Jesus, not John, who would give them the Promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, so it was Jesus, not John, to whom John pointed the people.

I think the challenge will often be contentment. I think the obstacle will often be stepping back and taking the approach that John took to his dying day: "He must increase and I must decrease." You know what? Like John, you can only do what you can do, but the glorious truth is that as we live and act in faith, God will do what only He can do both in our lives and in the lives of others. And that is the foundation of our contentedness, that God will do what only God can do.

So Lord, let my heart be at rest in the labors to which you've called me, knowing that I can only do what I can do, but as I live and minister faithfully and obediently, You will do what only You can do, pour out the Holy Spirit for Your glory and for our joy. Let me give up both the straining and the guilt that come with taking up more responsibility than is rightfully mine. And let my life be marked by John's attitude: "Increase, increase, increase, O Lord, while I decrease."