I’ve been reflecting on strength a lot lately. How far away it feels, how vital it seems, what a blessing it is, and how everyone seems to aspire to it in some way or form.
But God truly does give us what we need…abundantly, graciously, more than we could ask or think, yet sometimes not how we expect.
“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
-Philippians 4:19 (ESV)
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…”
-Ephesians 3:20 (ESV)
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
-Isaiah 55:9 (ESV)
Sometimes we ask for rest…and instead, we are simply given the grace and strength to take one more step forward. Sometimes we would push forward on our own, in our own strength, and He asks us to wait and rest in His promise to give us what we need for what He calls us to.
It’s funny how we all have this idea of what it’s like to be strong…and what kind we want, what way is best, what’s really strength. We think of athletes, winning the competition. We think of soldiers and captains pressing on, leaning on their training, and winning the battle, the war, the victory.
I’ve been contemplating a different idea of strength. What if…what if strength can sometimes be the losing soldier? Not the one that won the first round, effortless because of their strength, but the one that lost…over and over and over, but keeps fighting because no matter how ill-equipped they feel, they have to keep fighting? In other words…perhaps the soldier who can endure loss after loss and keep fighting, weak or not, is just as much an example of strength as the soldier who won effortlessly.
The soldier who wins effortlessly may be the stronger soldier in all appearances, but what if the soldier who’s barely holding on is fighting the harder battle? What if it takes more strength to be the underdog? Isn’t that why we cheer when the underdog does win?
I think internal or spiritual or mental strength can be hard to conceptualize…physical strength is easier to measure. It gets more complicated when you add God in the equation. Because then…everything’s turned on its head. Because those of us with absolutely no strength by any standard, those of us trapped in our weakness, outward or inward, are suddenly entrusted by God to display His glory, strength in our weakness.
“For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
–1 Corinthians 1:25 (ESV)
“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
– 2 Corinthians 12:10 (ESV)
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.“
-2 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV)
“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith…were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.”
-Hebrews 11:32, 33a, 34 (ESV)
So then…it starts to not to matter who wins in this world since our weakness is the perfect ground for His strength to show up and be displayed through us or despite us.
His strength through us really does look different. It’s when no one sees that His strength in us really matters. It’s in the dark, quiet moments when you whisper the only truths you can think to think and hold on with every ounce of strength He provides. It’s one more step when one tiny step seems too pathetic of a thing to call strength. It’s calling out when there’s nothing left, and it’s only His might holding you together.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
-Ephesians 6:10-12 (ESV)
So yes, beloved of God, He gives us strength. What we need, beyond what we know we need, not always as we think we want or in our own timing, but to whosoever cries out for it, this Almighty God, The Lord of Hosts, He indeed gives us strength.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”
-Isaiah 40:28-31 (ESV)
Faith on the Farm 