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# We Can't Even Change Ourselves
- URL: https://amemamem.com.br/en/we-cannot-even-change-ourselves/
- Published: 2025-05-27T01:24:23.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-09T01:04:10.000Z
- Description: We live surrounded by self-help phrases: “Believe in yourself.
- Author: Airton Humber
- Tags: #en, #de-nao-conseguimos-mudar-nem-a-nos-mesmos

## Why can't we even change ourselves?

We live surrounded by self-help phrases: *“Believe in yourself.”* *“You can do anything.”* *“You just have to want it.”* They promise us that, with effort and focus, we will be able to transform our lives and our character. But is that really so?

The Bible, and honest human experience, tell us something else.

## The great illusion of self-help

We **like** to believe that we can change ourselves, because it feeds our pride. Trusting in our own arm gives us a false sense of control. But the Word of God is clear: *“Cursed is the man who trusts in man, who makes mortal flesh his strength.” (Jeremiah 17)*, and this means above all not trusting in ourselves. Solomon warned: do not lean on your own understanding.

The result? We are often under a curse **without even realizing it**, because we live trying to bring about a change that only God can make.

## Human effort is limited and fragile

We can be strict, ascetic, disciplined. We can fast and keep watch, but, as Paul wrote, *“these things have an appearance of wisdom, but they have no real value in restraining the impulses of the flesh.” (Colossians 2:23)* they have no value at all against sensuality.

Human effort **does not last**. It breaks, tires and discourages. At most, it produces superficial changes, it never transforms the heart.

## The formidable in us: terrible and wonderful

Psalm 139 says we were formed in a formidable way, a word that carries two meanings: **terrible and wonderful**. There is something grand in us, but also something deeply corrupted. Not recognizing the terrible keeps us blind and proud; recognizing it leads us to seek the wonderful that only God can produce.

## Even Paul confessed his inability

The greatest preacher of all time admitted: *“The good that I want, I do not do; the evil that I do not want, that I keep on doing.” (Romans 7)* If Paul did not trust himself, why should we trust ourselves?

He understood: *“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”* There is no deliverance without Christ. There is no transformation without the Spirit.

## Without me you can do nothing

Jesus was direct: *“I am the vine, you are the branches. Without me, you can do nothing.” (John 15)*

It is not that we can do little. It is **nothing**. Everything that lasts and bears fruit comes from remaining in Him, not from human effort.

## Faith: the bridge between the invisible and the visible

Finally, faith is more than believing in something abstract. It is the certainty that the spiritual and **invisible** world interferes with and transforms the **visible**. Hebrews 11:1 says: *“Faith is the certainty of things hoped for, the conviction of facts not seen.”* Faith is the certainty of hope and the proof of the invisible.

And Hebrews 11:6 reminds us: *“Without faith it is impossible to please God.”* Not because God is demanding, but because without faith we keep trying to please Him by works, by our own effort, and that will never be enough. Only trust in Him opens space for His grace to work.

And there is a deep secret in this: *“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)* We do not please God by what we do, but by our heart turning to Him, resting and trusting. He is not moved by our performance, but by our relationship.

Without faith, we stay stuck in the visible world, trying to solve everything with our own hands, and we fail. With faith, we surrender to God's action, and He does what we cannot: the impossible.

## Our total dependence

All this leads us to a profound point: **it is God who works in us both to will and to do, according to His good pleasure.* (Philippians 2:13)* Even the desire to seek Him is not born from ourselves.

Jesus also said: *“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” (John 6:44)* Our dependence on Him is total, from the first movement of the heart to every real transformation in our lives.

## Conclusion

Self-help dies at the door of the Gospel. The Gospel does not invite us to help ourselves, but to surrender. It does not say: “You can do it.” It says: “You must be born again.”

Accepting this is not easy, but it is liberating. Only those who recognize their total inability are ready to receive the true life that comes from the Spirit.

**This is not a message of condemnation, but of hope**. Knowing that we cannot change ourselves does not sink us, it frees us to stop struggling alone and to rest in the perfect work of **Christ, now being formed in us**.

**Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.**