I wake up, still tired. The weight of all that will happen in the next 14-16 hours makes my heart race. I'm out of breath, heart racing at the anticipation of the long day ahead. How will I make it...how much strength do I have in me? The answer looms...never enough
How strong are you? When put to the test, how much will you be able to endure? This is a question most of us try not to dwell on, because no one seeks out adversity or pain or disappointment...
2 Timothy 4:17
But the Lord stood at my side and
gave me strength...
gave me strength...
A couple of weeks back, we gathered all of the kids to do a little strength training in the backyard. It was a warm summer evening with a light breeze, the perfect night to be outdoors together. Derrick took them through a series of weight lifting exercises, then he gave them a challenge...see how long you can hold up a plank and how long you can extend your arm with a weight in hand. Seconds passed in agony as the kids' faces grew redder and redder, determined to be the last man standing. It was all in good fun. There was no prize to be won. But a deeper message spoke to my heart that evening...our strength is limited, no matter how hard we try.
How do you train for a race...a big game...a weightlifting competition? Do you rest your body right up until the night before the event and then train for hours and hours? Of course not! If you are serious about it, you will work for months or even years, preparing yourself to be at your peak performance.
Walking the walk of faith takes a great deal of training too. If we are to be secure in our faith we must train, and train well. There will be constant road blocks, injuries, distractions to keep us from fixing our eyes on Jesus. And ultimately, no matter how hard we train, the fact is that our strength will still have limits, we still need Him to stand by us and help us, every single day.
Are you tired and weary? Have you been walking in a season of discouragement or struggle or pain? I've felt pushed to the limit many times over the past few months and yet in those moments of extreme fatigue and anguish, I have remembered that God was with me, always ready to lift me up and set me back on the path He has ordered for me. Why do I have to get to that place of despair, again and again, to be reminded of this? Pride....stubbornness...self-sufficiency...distraction...my greatest enemies.
Dear God, please help me to be strong...but not in my own strength that will surely fail me again and again. Help me to remember that my strength comes from You, first and foremost. Give me eyes to see You, each day, and to keep my priorities aligned according to Your will for me. Keep me strength through Your Word, that fills me up so that I do not hunger or thirst for all the fickle distractions of this world. Give me the will, the desire to TRAIN myself in Your ways. Discipline my mind and my body, not to give up the second adversity strikes but to remain faithful. Help me to trust in Your promise, that You will never leave or forsake me, even when things look very bleak. Give me a peace that passes all understanding, even when the storm is raging around me. Make me strong, in YOUR strength, not my own. In Jesus Name, Amen!
2 Corinthians 12:10
That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Isaiah 40:29-31
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
