Where do we get our strength to accomplish our goals?  Consider the following passage from “Radical” by David Platt.

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“Certainly hard work and high aspirations are not bad, and the freedom to pursue our goals is something we should celebrate.  Scripture explicitly commends all these things.  But underlying this [thought process] are a dangerous assumption that, if we are not cautious, we will unknowingly accept and a deadly goal that, if we are not careful, we will ultimately achieve.

The dangerous assumption we unknowingly accept…is that our greatest asset is our own ability.  [It] prizes what people can accomplish when they believe in themselves and trust in themselves, and we are drawn toward such thinking.  But the gospel has different priorities.  The gospel beckons us to die to ourselves and to believe in God and to trust in his power.  In the gospel, God confronts us with our utter inability to accomplish anything of value apart from him.  This is what Jesus meant when he said, ‘I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’”