DO YOU NEED STRENGTH?

June 21, 2024

No one likes to admit their weakness, but doing so is the first step to power. It’s the height of pride to never acknowledge your inability, but it's the pathway to real strength to do so.

Do you need strength?

Emotional strength to handle a loss or a tough situation? A fractured relationship? A daunting task? When faced with a relentless enemy?
Physical strength to get up and do the next right thing? To keep going in the face of pain or pressure? Just to make it through the day in the face of waning physical abilities?
Spiritual strength to continue in an area where you have consistently failed? To overcome sin? To do a demanding ministry task? To persevere when you want to give up?

I find myself there often. Admitting our weakness is not a sign of failure. In fact, it’s the necessary step to receiving God’s empowerment.

The Apostle Paul (one of the mightiest men in history who served under great suffering) was constantly admitting his need. He prayed this for the Ephesian believers.

That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man. (Ephesians 3:16)

THE SOURCE

That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory …

Paul knew that only One could give them (and him) what was needed. But He also knew that if we rely upon Christ, it is an inexhaustible supply … never-ending strength! The “riches of His glory!”

THE DELIVERY

… to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

The Spirit of God comes to live in every true Christian the moment they believe. God’s great gift is to give us His own Spirit with such nearness that He is always accessible.

Many believers don’t know of His indwelling. They have the Divine engine in the car but never turn the key through dependency and prayer. They face life with the insipid resources of mere humanity.

No demand is made upon a believer’s life that is not made upon the Spirit within them. God allows us to operate without Him if we proudly choose. But humble, dependent prayers like Paul’s unlock the limitless One. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” Paul said (Philippians 4:13). He learned to genuinely “glory” in his weakness, for he knew that “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

I was horribly sick one Saturday night and needed to preach multiple times the next day. I didn’t sleep at all throughout the evening, but I felt I was supposed to continue to the church in the morning.

Huddled miserably in a side room, I prayed, “Lord, I don’t think I have the strength to do this.” And God’s Spirit spoke to my heart (in the way that only God can do) and said, “Who said this was about your strength?” With sudden realization and joy, I gave Him my body as His instrument and asked Him to fill it with His strength. I went out and preached with unusual power … and then collapsed in my bed that afternoon!

God will always empower us for the tasks He wants accomplished … if we will ask.

I have found this formula effective over and over again. It never fails!

My weakness + faith in His strength = His work done in His power, to His glory.

Memorize Paul’s prayer today. Pray it for yourself and others daily … and watch what The-God-Of-All-Strength will do!