"I cannot by my own reason or strength believe"

Few words in the meaning of the Third Article stand out more than these.  (And none stick in our craw more than these!)  And the "reason" they bother us is this:  We have the experience of believing!  For many of us, the experience of believing is (in large part) a reasoned experience, too.  Although the faith is full of paradoxes and mysteries, we often have the experience of reasoning our belief.  So how can Luther and the Reformers write something that seems so obviously false?

Let's start by admitting what the meaning says and not over-interpret it.  It does NOT say your reason and your strength are not involved.  It simply says that they are inadequate on their own.

Start with the Gospel:  On your own, based solely on "the way the world works," would you dream up a scenario where a holy and just God decides that He will sacrifice His own Son's life to pay the price of humanity's sins so He would not have to eternally condemn them?  (If you say "yes," I don't think you are being honest with yourself.)

If your answer is "no," then you have admitted that you needed to hear the Gospel before you could come to believe it.  But you did hear it, didn't you?

And then there's the next step of continuing in that faith.  Given how "unreasonable" the Gospel is, how easy is it to hold onto the Gospel and to follow God's Law when much of our society is heading in the opposite direction.  With everything from a scientific community that pushes a theory of evolutionary development that opposes the creation account of God's Word to a societally-dictated morality that insists on changing the definition of marriage to suit its own whims, the world around us doesn't "naturally" support the Christian in his or her faith.

But we do have the experience of being supported in our faith, too!  You are sitting at a terminal reading words written by a Christian pastor who is eager to encourage you in your faith.  You've probably sat in our pews and experienced a similar form of encouragement when we share the peace together on Sunday.  And beyond that, you may have found answers and support from the Words of the Bible that don't seem to convince the world around us, but that you find convincing.

Who put that Bible in your hands?  Who are these people that share peace with you on Sunday?  Who placed this pastor in your life to minister to you and your faith?

This is the work of the Holy Spirit.  You cannot do it "by your own reason or strength," but He can work through your reason and strength to do it.  (And sometimes He even works around your reason and strength, too!)