I took my car in for an oil change. Soon, I was given the paperwork and keys and pointed to my vehicle. It wasn’t until I arrived home that I realized the oil had not been changed. Apparently, the guy only considered the mileage, missing the fact that the car had not been serviced in a year!

When we examine the lives of Bible heroes, we also find incompetence. Sure, many accomplished great feats or were faithful in certain circumstances, but they also had their share of failures. Abraham, Jacob, Job, David, Gideon, Elijah, and Esther. The list goes on and on.

When it comes to living for Jesus, we are all incompetent. Even the apostle Paul wrote, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” A few verses later, Paul concludes, “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:15, 22-25)

Paul’s summary is clear, “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5).

Thank You, Jesus, for being perfectly competent and sinless, for surrendering to torture and death on a cross so that we could be seen as competent in the Father’s eyes.