What Can One Person Accomplish?

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October 16, 2011


“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me”  (Philippians 4:13))

Do you believe that statement?  The apostle Paul did.  His life demonstrated that trust and belief in God’s power.  But Paul, an apostle, was special.  I am not like him.  I am just an ordinary person.  Well, Natasha was just a person like you and me.  Perhaps she was a little different because Natasha believed that she could accomplish great deeds with God, and she did.

Natasha Tsvyashchenko, a young woman of 37, died this year.  She had a very short life, but what Natasha and God accomplished in the Ukraine will endure.  Natasha became a Christian shortly after the fall of Communism.  What she accomplished was to help plant churches in the Ukraine and get the school system to accept Bibles so the students could study God’s word.  Natasha opened prisons to the word of God and aided our missionaries and other efforts in her country.  Someone said, “If we were to list everything that she accomplished…you would think that we were talking about the contributions of four people.”

What an example!  Her love and zeal for the Lord and for the lost truly abounded.  As Paul wrote in Colossians 1:11a, she was “strengthened with all power.”  Natasha certainly demonstrated that she believed that she could, “do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

We often think of all that Paul accomplished, but he was an apostle.  We cannot achieve what he did, can we?  Then we see what Natasha and others like her have achieved for the kingdom.  Surely we can let God work through us as she did and accomplish what our God wants accomplished.  Our purpose is good works that God has prepared for us.  “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them,” (Ephesians 2:10).

“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”  (Colossians 1:9-12).

To quote Theodore Roosevelt, “We plead for a closer, wider, and deeper study of the Bible, so that our people may be in fact, as well in theory, “Doers of the Word and not hearers only.” Yes, without God’s strengthening, I am just an ordinary person, but with God’s strengthening and working with God I can actually change Denver, Colorado, the USA, and the world.  Believe God’s promise and commit to doing His will with your life.

Let us all strive to be doers like Natasha.

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Heavenly Father, we are thankful for the example of Natasha.  Father, to see Your power working through her is inspiring.  Strengthen us with Your power.  Set our hearts on fire with zeal for You.  Increase our love for the lost.  Open our hearts that we can see that there is much we can do with Your power.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.          ~ Ed
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Ed Wittlif ~ Denver, Colorado                                 (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)    (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Ed Wittlif, former preacher of Albert Lea Church of Christ in Albert Lea, Minnesota, is a University Church of Chirst member.