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May 03, 2025 06:00am

You Don’t Got This

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You don’t got this.

Our pastor is preaching through Zechariah. It’s a book presented late in the Old Testament, and although I’m sure I’ve read it, the sermon series has felt a bit distant to me. Unfamiliar.

It’s not the pastor’s fault.

Could be all the distractions. I have cancer. I sat in church trying to blend in with a wig and pay attention to the presentation slides so I could fill in the blanks and somehow feel “normal”, despite also coming down the hallway to the sanctuary on broken shoes. Like, my snakeskin platform shoes broke. Like the soles literally came off. I have no answers for why or how these things happen! So, I shuffled to the closest back pew and tried to focus but I was greatly unsuccessful.

Amazing how the small things feel like mountains in the way sometimes.

I bet you have distractions, too?

Point being I don’t like feeling distant from the Word of God, ever. Especially, when I am so desperate for His presence and His word. So, this morning I am up at 4:30 a.m., not on purpose by the way, to study Zechariah. I don’t get up this early. But, sometimes the Lord summons and the most appropriate response is to rise up.

So, here we are. And I’ve landed on the key verse presented in our sermon a couple of days ago.

“…not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6b

It was hard times for the people of Israel. They had just returned from exile and were supposed to be rebuilding the city and the temple. They had a big job. The LORD had made it very clear what they were to do, what the consequences would be if they chose to sit it out, and the extreme challenges and opposition they would face.

What God was requiring of them wasn’t going to be easy. That much was crystal clear.

Been there?

Been given a hard assignment? A bad hand? A diagnosis you didn’t see coming? A loss? An unfair plight?

Welcome to humanity.

And yet, the LORD says, rebuild. The LORD doesn’t waiver in His desire or plan. He basically says do what I want you to do, how I want you to do it, and do it now.

He’s not debating the hard. He’s demanding obedience.

And so I find myself in the text hoping these people just get to work and get this temple done. LIke, get on with it already.

But, they can’t. They still want answers and information.They can’t seem to find the people or the resources or the mojo to get moving. It’s just too big for them. It’s been decades of ruin. It’s been more than a season of pain and discouragement. The distractions and the opposition and the taxes and the policies and the chaos is quite real.

The mountain doesn’t just appear big, it is big.

Impossible really.

The struggle is real when things are out of our control and ugly and terrifying and too complicated for us. It’s painful and hard when we find ourselves sitting at the foot of something we can’t climb.

But, then the key nuggets of the verse hit explaining how to make it through:

Not by might, meaning there is not physical or mental strength or efficiency or wealth or even an army or team of people to bring to the table that is going to accomplish my purposes, says the Lord.

Well…that seems discouraging.

Bringing it back to my current life of cancer and chemo and work campaigns and church and children, I feel like a little “might’ is exactly what I need. Isn’t this a battle after all?

What I see here, again, is that what I have to offer isn’t actually enough. Which kind of stinks because I’ve spent a lot of years developing myself, ya know? I’ve worked on mental grit and even physical strength. I’ve read the blogs on high performance, time management, and efficiency. I’ve made wise investments and worked to build wealth and I’ve built a career on helping people communicate and build teams. So, reading the definition of “might’ is quite a blow to my ego and my abilities to accomplish what God has assigned.

But, wait, there’s more.

Nor by power, meaning very simply: human strength.

Well, I’m human so…there goes that.

But, by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.

By my Spirit.

This is God’s answer! The how -in- the- world?…answer!

Let me quote all the things listed on my Blue Letter Bible App to define the Spirit…soak this in!

Wind
Breath
Mind
Air – gas
Courage
A Gift
Desire
The 3rd person of the triune God.
INSPIRING ecstatic state of prophecy
As IMPELLING prophet to utter instruction or warning
IMPARTING warlike energy and executive and administrative power (I really like this one. Just saying.)
As ENDOWING men (and women) with various gifts
As ENERGY of life
As manifest in the Shekinah GLORY
And NEVER referred to as a depersonalised force.

(all emphasis mine.)

By.my.Spirit. Says THE LORD OF HOSTS.

We need a good slap in the face moment right here. This isn’t the people doing the thing. This isn’t me figuring out how to figure it out. This declaration in scripture is revealing the character and nature of a good and loving and gracious God showing up in the impossible, like He always does, and making a way where there just isn’t one.

Everything you and I need, He provides. By His Spirit. HIS spirit. His energy. His movement. His inspiration. His instruction. His courage. His giftings. His His His.

So stop.

Stop trying to live and work and succeed and accomplish and deal in your own strength.

You don’t “got this” like everyone tries to tell you, you do. Sorry. I know it’s a hit to the ego, but we (humans) just aren’t that great. The mountains are actually too big. The assignments aren’t realistic. The burdens are too heavy and the people are too fickle.

But, by my Spirit…what a gorgeous thought.

There’s nothing too hard for the LORD. I’ve heard it said, impossible is where God starts.

Next verse: “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of Grace, grace to it!” Zechariah 4:7

The mountain was going.

The Spirit of the LORD was going to move it. Eliminate it actually. All the “things” were not even going to be “things” if the LORD had His way.

Let Him have His way.

That’s where I’m at this morning and it’s only 6:15 a.m. I’m reminding myself… no… allowing His Spirit to remind me — to get out of His way.

To watch Him work.

To look for what He is doing by His spirit.

To rest knowing I really don’t have what it takes to move or even to face the mountains in front of me.

And that’s good.

I feel free. I feel comforted. I feel confident in whatever He’s doing.

I see His glory and I want to see more.

I don’t got this, but He does.