23 Strength…
For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13
The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him – my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
Exodus 15:2
You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God lights up my darkness. In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.
Psalm 18:28-29
I used to belong to a gym to help build up my muscle strength and general all-round fitness – I did okay but marvelled at the guys that were there every day doing weights to build strength. Such commitment! Unfortunately, not a great deal of it rubbed off on me…
I also work on my mental strength everyday doing puzzles, reading, writing, staying mind-active.
But what about spiritual strength. One definition of strength found in the Oxford Dictionary goes like this:
The emotional or mental qualities necessary in dealing with difficult or distressing situations.
This is the strength we draw from God to enable us to face whatever lies ahead of us. It is the strength I needed to not only overcome laryngeal cancer but also to learn to live life without a larynx. It is the strength I needed to conduct funerals for my parents and settle their estates. It is the strength needed when facing persecution, business failure, loss of a child. The list goes on.
Sometimes it is the strength needed to just get out of bed in the morning believing that today will not be a good one, one in which your dreams are fulfilled…
So how do we access this strength that Moses, Paul, and David reference? We go to the gym for physical strength; to books and puzzles for mental strength. And we go to God for spiritual strength, endurance, perseverance.
We go to God through his Word, through prayer, through worship; through gathering with other Christians. In a word, through building relationship with him.
We are strengthened by God because of who he is, because he is strong and mighty, and he endows his strength to us enabling us to face the battles of life.
We are strengthened because, in intimacy with him, we can see our future through him and with him before it comes into being.
With God’s strength we can do all things, face all things.
Prayer: Lord, I have a dream of publishing all my journals, stories, writings so that others may learn from them but I lack the strength so often to sit down at my computer and work on this blog. Help me each morning to get up strong and ready to fulfil what you have planted in me
Amen
Action: Each morning, join me and take time to step into God’s presence, his strength gym, through the Word and prayer…
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