I can’t do this!

4Hear, O our God, how we are an object of contempt! Return their taunting on their own heads, and turn them into plunder in a land of captivity.

– Nehemiah 4:4

When does this resigned “I can’t do this” (or: “I am not able to do that”) come over our lips?

That happens when we look at ourselves. That was the case with Moses: “I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too heavy for me. So if You are going to deal with me this way, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my misery” (Numbers 11:14–15).
It also happens when we stare at the power of the enemy. That is what the scouts did at the border to Canaan: “But the men who went up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, because they are stronger than we”” (Numbers 13:31).
And furthermore, that will happen when we are busy with what is not yet done—when we look at the large amount of work. “Judah said, “The strength of the burden bearers is failing, yet there is much debris; and we ourselves are unable to rebuild the wall”” (Nehemiah 4:4).

Look to Christ! Paul did that too, and so he said: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).