Turning “I Can’t” to “I Can and I Will!”

By Alexandra Copeland

Any success that we garner in life is attributable to our faith in God and our belief in ourselves. The failures we experience are most certainly related to our fears and lack of faith in God. We do our utmost to dance around these two basic truths, but it is a futile exercise. If a person defines failure as living an unhappy and unfulfilling existence, having lots of insecurities, and believing that they’re doomed even before they start anything, then failure is unacceptable. Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said to the disciples in Matthew 9:38 (NLT), “The harvest is great, but the workers are few.” Just in case you didn’t know, we, you and I, are the workers. We’ve got plenty of work to do, and any thoughts about failure are going to get in the way.

What does success look like?
Everything with our Heavenly Father is about love, light, liberty, and life. So, before we delve into failure, let’s chat a little bit about success, because success is God’s desire for every person, and through His Word, He’s provided a roadmap to guide us to it.  

Success starts with making the things that are important to God important to you. Anything outside of what pleases Him is not worth our time. Heavenly Father reassures us in Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT), “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” This is God’s plan for our existences. His plan doesn’t mean that we’re robots, walking around to a prewritten script. We’re His children, and we are indeed called to be faithful followers of Christ. We’re to follow his example, and sometimes this means that we need to abandon our own agendas in certain areas of our lives.

This is not a sacrifice. And no, we don’t have to be perfect to have success. Our Heavenly Father always knows best. We just need to be humble enough to recognize when God is leading us down a path that is different from the one we planned.

Even Moses was unsure of himself, and the Bible clearly tells us that he had a failure or two in his life. He was called by God to help deliver the Children of Israel from the tyranny of bondage in Egypt, and he wasn’t so gung-ho. He questioned Heavenly Father. Exodus 3:11(NLT) tells us, “But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?”  God assured Moses that He would be with Him as he moved forward in obedience.

The “I Can’ts”
“I can’t…” makes itself comfortable in our lives when we continue to try to put square pegs into round holes. We try to make the unworkable work because we’re often stubborn and hardheaded. This is when we engage something that will take us in the opposite direction of what we’re called to do. God has called us with a holy calling. He’s predestined us. You’re by no means a random individual. You’re a forever being with an identity in Christ. You’re not here on the earth by accident. You’re walking out your identity as you discover through this earth experience who you really are. Wakeup calls and warnings are woven into our existences, and they alert us when we’re veering off the path. We just have to pay attention and get back on it.

The Transformation
2Corinthians 1:20(NLT) tells us, “For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.” In our hearts and minds, we should have a “YES!” to God continually. He’s worthy of our “YES!”, because He never fails or reneges on His promises.

There’s no failure in Christ. We know this because He tells us in Romans 8:28 (NLT), “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”  This isn’t a some-time phenomenon. This is the truth all the time. ALL THE TIME God causes EVERYTHING to work together for those of us who love Him. We need to get to a point where we don’t worry about things that God doesn’t worry about; we love the things He loves, and we totally leave alone the things that displease Him.

Heavenly Father wants us to say “YES!” to love, light, liberty, and life! In Proverbs 3:1-4(NLT), He takes us to school on how to transform “I can’t…” to “I can, and I will!”  He tells us in this passage, “1 My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. 2 If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying. 3 Never let loyalty and kindness leave you!  Tie them around your neck as a reminder.  Write them deep within your heart. 4 Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation.” Our God is merciful, kind, and full of goodness and power. He’s empowered us to live boldly and victoriously through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If we’ll humble ourselves and trust that He has a better plan than we can imagine, He’ll guide us to live a life filled with success.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.