Whose Strength?

When Moses had died and Joshua was about to start leading the people of Israel into the Promised Land, the Lord said to him three times: “Be strong and courageous” (Joshua 1:6-7 & 9). If God repeats this three times within one discourse, it must be important. I wonder how often the Lord is wanting to say the same to us. It is so important in these days that we stay strong. However, the problem is that many of us respond by drawing on our own resources and trying to do things in our own strength. But this is soulish and is not the kind of strength that God means.

There is an advertisement in the UK for a certain type of battery, which shows three toy rabbits hopping up a hill. Two of them soon run out of battery, while the third keeps going. If we try to live our lives on soul power, in our own strength, we will be like the two bunnies which run out of battery. This can result in physical exhaustion and sickness, as well as mental, emotional, and spiritual breakdown.

Today’s verse comes when Paul had been pleading with the Lord to take away his thorn in the flesh. We don’t know exactly what this ‘thorn’ was, but God knew that it was better for Paul to retain some vulnerability and weakness in order for His power to be manifest. God’s response to Paul was therefore: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”  Paul obviously understood this and was able to say: ‘That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Corinthians 12:10). It is a strange truth that it is in our moments of greatest human weakness that we can know the greatest power of God at work in our lives, provided we are looking to Him and relying on Him and His strength.

In Ephesians 6, when Paul writes about the spiritual battles that every believer will be engaged in, he tells us about the armour that we will need. But he begins with ‘Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.’ He is not just telling us to be strong, but to be strong in the Lord. It is the Lord’s strength alone that we need.

Whatever situation you find yourself in today, I would encourage you to surrender all your own ways of coping, and to look to the Lord and His strength. He will never let you down.