The Limitations of Man

Did you ever stop to think about the limitations of man?  Accomplishments, Opportunities, a good dose of self-reliance, and a rugged individualism are all we need to achieve... almost anything.  Man is constantly becoming, evolving, inventing:  Who knows what we can do?
The Bible gives us a healthy dose of realism instead.  It tells us what we can't do on our own.  We are never independent of God, even in rebellion.  It's pretty humbling.  Here's a list of man's limitations:

• Man cannot direct his own course.  "I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps." (Jeremiah 10:23)
• Man cannot provide for his own needs.  "You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:18).
• Man cannot know or trust his own heart.  The Disney princesses (and Ralph Waldo Emerson) are wrong.  "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick:  Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9)
• Man cannot even keep himself alive.  "Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" (Luke 12:25)

"In Him, we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  God Himself guides us, empowers us, provides for us.  He knows our hearts.  He holds us together.  "All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:16-17).