{"id":189,"date":"2026-02-16T14:59:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/?p=189"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:59:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:59:40","slug":"doing-it-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/16\/doing-it-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing it Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ponder: Can you do it yourself?<\/span><\/p>\n

Scripture: \u201cFor they, being ignorant of God\u2019s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God\u201d (Romans 10:3, NKJV).<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you read the Sesame Street book, \u201cI Can Do It Myself,\u201d over and over to your children? Youngsters should learn to do certain things themselves rather than relying on others. For example: \u201cI can comb my hair; I can do it myself!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In some ways, self-reliance is good. Scripture requires us to work to provide for ourselves, our families, and those in genuine need. However, \u201cI can do it\u00a0 myself\u201d can be taken to an unhealthy extreme, particularly concerning our relationship with God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Psalm 115:1 gets it right: \u201cNot unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory.\u201d Likewise Psalm 100:3 reminds us, \u201cKnow that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

First-century Jews thought they could keep enough commandments enough times to punch their ticket to heaven. \u201cFor they, being ignorant of God\u2019s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God\u201d (Romans 10:3). Here, \u201crighteousness\u201d doesn\u2019t mean good behavior. It means being \u201cright\u201d with God. The Jews knew that God is righteous. But they rejected God\u2019s way of making sinners right with Himself through the sacrifice of Jesus. They basically said, \u201cWe can do it ourselves.\u201d So they listed 248 positive commands and 365 negative commands in the Old Testament. Then they attempted to obey enough commands enough times to merit a good relationship with God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding atonement for sin, not one of us can accurately say, \u201cI can do it myself.\u201d Jesus did it for us, and we must humble ourselves to accept it as a gift, not as something we earn. Yes, there are conditions for receiving this gift, including repentance from sin, confession of Jesus as the Son of God, and immersion in water. But none of those things is a work of merit; we do not earn fellowship with God, nor can we in any way put God in our debt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saying \u201cI can\u2019t do it myself\u201d is, in one sense, bad news. But the good news is that Jesus has already made the way for us to be right w\/ God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Song: \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer: Righteous Father, we freely confess that we cannot pay the price for our sins. We praise and thank You for Jesus, who went to the cross and shed His precious blood to make atonement for us. May we always humble ourselves before Him and recognize His blood as the only thing that can wash our sins away. In His name, Amen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joe Slater<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ponder: Can you do it yourself? Scripture: \u201cFor they, being ignorant of God\u2019s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God\u201d (Romans 10:3, NKJV). Have you read the Sesame Street book, \u201cI Can Do It Myself,\u201d over…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading… Doing it Yourself<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakesidecofc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}