Establish my footsteps in Your Word ~ Psalm 119:133

The stone was rolled away from the tomb where Jesus was buried after his crucifixion on the cross. But Jesus wasn’t in the tomb anymore! He had, in fact, risen from the dead just as He said he would. He had defeated death! 

The Christian’s First Concern

Because He was victorious over the grave, Jesus now displays His power and authority over heaven and earth. He gave a clear command to His followers in Matthew 28 that would define the very purpose of the Christian life: to go and make disciples. Some have said that Jesus’ last command is our first concern. This passage is often referred to as the Great Commission because it is the most basic and important instruction from Christ to all believers of all ages in every part of the world. 

Matthew 28:19-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. 

Carrying this message to the world is going to require a tremendous amount of energy. Because we’re human, we get tired, we grow weary and we lack might. We need a dose of divine strength to take this gospel to the unbelieving and dying world. The Lord has no shortage of strength that He is willing to share with His ambassadors. 

You Will Receive Power

Acts 1:8
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria; and even to the remotest part of the earth. 

Jesus had just miraculously risen from the dead and had appeared to many people over a period of forty days. In a moment right before He ascended into heaven, He told His followers that the Holy Spirit was coming soon and would empower them to do some very important work. They were going to have the responsibility of being witnesses! They were going to have an eternal impact in their culture. They were being commissioned to spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ in their respective neighborhoods! But not just in their immediate community, but also in the surrounding regions and even to the whole world. This call to impact the world was not for them only. God’s plan for Christians has not changed. The Lord has empowered us also to do the same work: boldly proclaiming the truth of Christ and His message of forgiveness to a world in desperate need.  

The Gospel is the Power of God!

Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The book of Romans was a letter to the Christians at Rome from the pen of The Apostle Paul who often experienced severe persecution of various sorts. So Paul, as he often did in his letters, offered some word of encouragement to his fellow believers. In this case he said that there was no need to shrink back from declaring the good news of the gospel to those around them. Why? Because the gospel contains the POWER of God. It is not our power, but God’s power. We can rely upon the Lord to supply everything necessary when we’re sharing the good news. He will provide the words. He will provide the strength. He will open the doors, and He will ensure the outcome.  

The Lord is my Strength

Exodus 15:2  (See also Psalm 118:14)
The Lord is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will extol Him.

Imagine you were one of the Israelites that Moses had just led through the Red Sea. Just moments earlier you were in an impossible circumstance, sandwiched between a huge body of water and an angry army of Egyptians. You’re scared, your family is scared. You don’t know what to do or which direction to turn. This is a dire situation that looks hopeless. But God shows up in a big way and splits the Red Sea in half. You use every ounce of energy to get to the shore on the other side and, to your relief, look back and see every one of your fears drowning in the water of God’s deliverance. You realize that the Lord has utterly and completely destroyed the enemy and moved you to a position of safety and security. He saved you! Something that was humanly impossible happened because the One who created the sea caused the sea to open up so that you had safe passage to the other side. You have just seen the power, the strength and the might of the living God. If He is able to control even the winds and the seas, then He is certainly more than able to provide you with strength. Why? Because He is the source of all strength!

When I am Weak, Then I am Strong

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”  Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

God uses the foolish things to shame the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27). God has chosen to work through weak people. It seems foolish to the onlooking world to use weak people to do the important work of the kingdom. It seems that strong people would be the logical choice. But in God’s economy some things are opposite from what you may expect. 

To be great, you have to be the least. To be exalted you must be humble. To really live, you must die to self. These are some of the paradoxes of the Christian life. The Bible teaches us that strength comes through weakness. 

Paul had something that he called a ‘thorn in the flesh’. He doesn’t say exactly what it was, but it tormented him so much that he implored the Lord to remove it, not just one, but three times. It could have been an extended illness of some sort. Maybe it was pain from an injury (after all, he had been beaten and persecuted during his ministry). Whatever the case was, Paul was quick to understand why the Lord answered his prayer by saying ‘My grace is sufficient for you’. He recognized that it was the power of Christ living within him that was accomplishing everything. If Paul were a strong, muscular, healthy man of great stature, people may see the great things he was doing as being from himself rather than Christ. But because he was characterized as weak, with distresses and persecutions, any onlookers would have to come to the conclusion that it was God working through him. God gets the glory by using weak people to accomplish amazing things for Him. 

The Strength of My Heart

Psalm 73:25-26
Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

The Psalmist expresses his one and only desire: the Lord. Nothing else compares. Nothing else will do.  God is his only choice. He realizes the important truth that he is weak and needy and that he is impotent on his own. As frail humans, our bodies lose vitality as we age. In our fallen state, our thinking skills aren’t entirely right all the time and our emotions are often fragile. We need physical stamina and renewal in our minds which we are not capable of producing ourselves. 

But God provides what we need. He will give us the necessary strength, not just to get us through the day, but to forever thrive and overwhelmingly conquer. We must desire Him above all else and we must make choices in our lives that are consistent with this desire. Recognizing that God is the source of our strength and that it is He alone who empowers is a good starting place to fan the flame of desire for Him.  Lean upon the Lord, the giver of all power and strength. 

My Rock, My Fortress, My Deliverer

Psalm 18:1-3
I love You, O Lord, my strength.  The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

The Bible employs the use of military terms often, and this passage is one of those places. Fittingly, David writes this song celebrating his God who was his rock, his fortress and his deliverer.   

A rock is something that is steady, stable, fixed, firm and immovable. It’s the kind of steady surface that you would build a foundation for a house on. David saw God as that rock upon which he built his life upon.  An old hymn says, ‘on Christ the solid rock I stand… all other ground is sinking sand’.   

A fortress is a secure place of safety, a stronghold. Imagine a castle on top of a mountain with huge thick walls, it’s surrounding moat and army of men protecting it’s inhabitants. This was the word picture David was painting of God guarding us from a position of strength. 

And a deliverer moves someone in danger to a position of safety. They literally save them by causing their escape and carrying them away. 

Continuing with the military terminology, David also describes God as a shield, which is an obvious reference to the protection that God provides His people. As the world hurls its abuse at Christians, God stands between us and the world as a shield. 

The word ‘horn’ in this Old Testament passage can be taken to represent God as our defender and also can be representative of His power and dignity.   

David’s deep respect for the Lord and recognition of His strength causes him to burst out in praise. David knew his God. The more we get intimate with God and really know Him, the more we will see Him as OUR strength, and we will follow in praise. 

We Have These Weapons at Our Disposal

In conclusion, let’s look to the Lord, the author and giver of strength. Lets rely on Him to provide every ounce of energy that we need to accomplish the work He has for all of us. Meditating on, or even memorizing these ‘strength’ verses puts within your minds reach all weapons you need to ward off the enemies attacks regarding your perceived lack of strength.  You will be encouraged as you rehearse these verses that God has empowered you to be His witness in the world.