For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
James was 17 when he found out his dad wasn’t who he thought he was.
His family lived in a beautiful home in an exclusive neighborhood. But just before he graduated high school, and only two years after he’d become a follower of Jesus, James learned that his dad had been living a double life of debauchery. Feeling like everything he’d ever known had been shaken, James feared that he wouldn’t know how to be a faithful husband and father.
Later, when James was newly married, his wife fell into a dark depression, unable to get out of bed for weeks. But James discovered something powerful. When he surrendered his life to God—and when any of us do the same, God fills us with His own Spirit. In the Bible, God says, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
James knew where he could find the courage to help his wife. Just as Paul, a follower of Jesus wrote, “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13), James realized that he wasn’t his dad. He could rely, not on a perfect example of a father and husband that he’d had growing up, but on the Spirit of the living God Who was his constant help. Beautifully, James got the help that his wife needed, and she recovered from her dark depression.
Remember this: the Holy Spirit in you frees you from repeating the failures that were lived before you as a child.
