Knowledge and Power
It boggles the mind to take stock of how much goes into the simplest human endeavor. When we determine to do something, it involves our reason, will, and human faculties to do it. We use some number of our five senses, our cognitive judgment, and apply our volition. Put more simply, you make up your mind and physically act upon it. When something is wrong physically, such as a pulled muscle, we are amazed at how many actions are affected. When our thinking is fuzzy, or when we are highly stressed, we become aware of how important clear thinking is.
A Christian has a whole separate element to apply to this. We believe that we are not on our own and that God can assist us in the actions we need to take. We pray for clearer knowledge, understanding, and moral wisdom; we ask for added strength. We count on the Spirit of God to give divine grace. The Holy Spirit can come alongside us and cooperate with our human effort and will. Look at the Collect for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 10), and notice that all of this is considered within our request to God:
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our belief implies that God can help us know and understand what things we ought to do. We believe that God’s grace can strengthen us with the power to accomplish these things. In some applications of Greek philosophy, the thing a person needs to do the right thing is to know with our reason what is right. A person of Christian faith generally feels more is needed. God’s help is sought to discern what is right, to have a strong resolve for choosing to do it. We need grace for clarifying our understanding and the strength to follow through.
In our faith, divine grace and the human will go about as a team to involve us in the purposes of God. This is because we have been adopted as children of God and cooperating agents of God. A lot goes into the process of a person taking action, and if we are determined with our actions to bear fruit in God’s plans, even more, is involved. St. Paul takes up this very sense of it when he has these wishes for the Christians in Colossae. Take to heart Paul’s expressions of goodwill:
We have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. (Colossians 1:9-12)