Does God Tell Us to Do or Try? By Caleb Capshaw

I hate the word ‘Try’.  Try is a word that limits us. Try is a word that points out to us that there a large probability of failure.  Try is something  that keeps us from going all out.  Most people would say that “God doesn’t want us to be perfect, He just wants us to try.”  And while there is a lot of truth to this statement I feel like it can kind of lighten the gravity of our own failures.  James 1:22 says, “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”  It says to be doers.  Not triers (I don’t even think that’s a real word).  God commands us to do things.  The Bible isn’t filled with phrases like “Try to love your neighbors.” Or “Try to not envy.” Or “Try to not murder.”  God gives us direct commands, not suggestions. 

            There is a huge difference in trying and doing something.  If I were to tell you to try and move a wall, you could walk up to it and give it a quick push and say you tried, even though it didn’t budge.  However, if you decided to move the wall, you would probably come up with a plan of action, get the right tools, and move the wall.  Then only question would be where do you want to put the wall. When we have failures in doing God’s will a lot of times we find ourselves saying “Well, I tried and I just couldn’t do it.”  Sometimes I feel like this our own way of comforting ourselves.  This relieves us because it makes us think God expected that to happen already.  However, if we think when we mess up like, “I didn’t do what God told me to do.”  Then it puts a bit more seriousness on us to do something about it. So I guess in conclusion what I’m trying to say is God expects us to do His will for him. Not try to do it.