Where is your strength?-In
His Word 3-27-17
In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of
my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
We used to sing a song back
I the day that said “My hope is I You Lord, and my strength is in You Lord and
my Faith is in You Lord.. it’s in You its in You…I will praise you with all of
my heart…” We would have fun with it and repeat it so many times because it was
the truth and drew out emotion and a desire to draw nearer to God knowing He
was the place where we receive our strength, our hope and all the desires of
our hearts.
Though today’s worship
songs are fun and catchy sometimes I think we forget where the strength comes
from to stand and worship, to walk the walk even in adversity and for some just
to get out of bed and go through another day.
What do you do? Do you go
to the gym and work out to build your strength and stamina physically? What
about your spiritual strength; the kind it takes to walk through each day at a
job you greatly dislike, or living a lonely life that seems like it will never
get any better?
Today it is the desire of
my heart to bring you to the place where you are no longer alone, no longer
weak and no longer disgruntled but instead that you are finding strength in His
Word! Grab a scripture and stand on it!
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the
abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger
of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I
pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My
strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I
will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in
persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am
strong.2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Paul was given an area of weakness in his life,
some say it was physical and some say it was emotional or mental; whatever it
was we know that he testifies here that when weakness came upon him he would
turn to Christ Jesus his Lord for strength to carry on and complete his
mission.
Can you imagine being
chained up in prison with little or no food for days, months or years just
because you told the truth? This man was full of ‘entitlement’ as well! He was
a Roman citizen, something that was valued as above others in his time. He was
a Pharisee’s son who was also trained to be one; this means he was a Biblical
Scholar for a good part of his life before he came to know and believe in Jesus
as the Christ. Yet, he still was thrown into prison for speaking the truth and
encouraging others to do so as well.
If
anyone knows of the strength both physical and spiritual coming from God, it
would be he.
Or
if you prefer we can look at the Old Testament characters such as Esther, who
trusting God saved a Nation of Hebrews; she could have been too afraid to admit
she was one herself but God gave her strength and encouraged her to use her
place for ‘such a time as this’.
13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do
not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than
all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance
will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house
will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther
4:13-14
What about Moses? He
found the strength on the
At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied
with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling
sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And this same God who takes care of me
will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to
us in Christ Jesus.
20 Now all glory
to God our Father forever and ever! Amen. Philippians 4:18-20.
During a time when I was single, working for minimum wage, and
completely responsible for myself; I found that my God would supply all my
needs. I found Him supplying a wood stove when my stove had run out of oil in
the middle of the winter for the second time. And though I had no provisions to
pay for it, He provided me a free stove! It was a small one and just the right
size to heat my little cottage of a home in Federal Way , Washington
When I was hit by a car in a crosswalk with the light, God gave me
the strength physically to stand and the spiritual strength to forgive the
person who hit us. It happened it was done; God forgave me so much so why not
forgive them?
There are times
in all our lives in which we just do not think we can ‘make it’ one more day.
But God can help us to do so.
…a land that the Lord your God
cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year! “If you carefully obey the commands I am
giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and
serve him with all your heart and soul, then he will send the rains in their
proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of
grain, new wine, and olive oil. Deuteronomy 11:12-14
And
you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your
soul, all your mind, and all your strength. Mark 12:30
Trust in the
Lord with all your heart. Proverbs3:5
My strength is in Him and I find that the
scriptures in the Word of God will remind me and give me hope for today, and strength
to reach the joy in tomorrow.
Use
your concordance to find hope for what is hindering you to be gone, find a path
to walk according to the Word and the will of God.
BibleGateway
and YouVerse both have search engines so that we can seek a scripture to fill
our lives with strength and hope in the Word.
Today
make it a new practice to do a search for a scripture then highlight it to look
at each time you need the strength to go on.
Dear
Heavenly Father, bring your Word alive to us in our daily lives. Help us to
find the scriptures that are perfect for each thing we are walking through
today. Speak to us via you Word, in Jesus name, amen.
Suggested
reading
Mark
12:1-44, Philippians 4:1-23 and Psalm 62:1-12,
