STRENGTH FROM ABOVE
Well, have you failed at some or all of your ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ yet? I have, and miserably in some cases! Indeed, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, right? Are you bummed out about it? Discouraged? Disheartened? Ready to chuck the whole thing, and its only half way through January? As we strive for perfection in life, sometimes we can fail so pitifully as Christians, even if it’s not our fault. Still, the damage is done, we become angry or distressed over ourselves, and the full weight of our imperfection and inadequacies are manifested for all to see. It is then that we begin to cry out as Paul did, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom 7:24)”
I remember when I asked my old pastor if he had any last words of wisdom for me, prior to going into the ministry, he said; “Always remember, that you are an imperfect messenger, trying to preach a perfect message, and of that, you may be assured that you will always fall short”. I have found this to be an absolute truism, every day since of course, but I have also discovered that this dichotomy can become a source of considerable distress in the life of every Christian believer as well. We want to be a living testimony of our perfect God, but Paul also declared emphatically that, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… (NKJV Rom 3:23)”, without exception; a reality that often burdens us greatly.
Rather than stiffening your upper lip (again), and pulling up your bootstraps (again), I recommend that the Christian soldier follow the example of King David and, “…strengthen… himself in the LORD his God. (1 Sam 30:6), rather than rely on shear will power and human resilience to get them through. However, what does it mean to, ‘strengthen yourself in the Lord?’ Surely, this should be requisite knowledge for every believer, but sadly it is not. Certainly, David learned and understood this concept well, and we see it on full display in the Psalms that he wrote. Consider just a sampling of this as he declared, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, Because He was angry. (Psa 18:6-7)” The principle is obvious; God loves His people and reacts powerfully on their behalf, when they cry out in faith for Him to do so.
Again, David found the wisdom to say to himself, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. (Psa 42:11)”, and to God he cried, “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. (Psa 56:3-4)” Over and over again we find David, trusting, hoping, praying, crying out, depending, and gaining his strength from God and His word; all the while, rejecting the inclination to trust in himself or anything else.
The great Scottish minister, Alexander Maclaren, observed in David’s predicament that, "Here is one of the many eloquent ‘buts’ of the Bible. On the one hand is piled up a black heap of calamities, loss, treachery and peril; and opposed to them is only that one clause: ‘But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. (KJV 1 Sam 30:6)’… Though he could no longer say, ‘My house, my city, my possessions,’ he could say, ‘My God.’ Whatever else we lose, as long as we have Him we are rich; and whatever else we possess, we are poor as long as we have not Him. God is enough; whatever else may go. (Maclaren)"
The great Scottish minister, Alexander Maclaren, observed in David’s predicament that, "Here is one of the many eloquent ‘buts’ of the Bible. On the one hand is piled up a black heap of calamities, loss, treachery and peril; and opposed to them is only that one clause: ‘But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. (KJV 1 Sam 30:6)’… Though he could no longer say, ‘My house, my city, my possessions,’ he could say, ‘My God.’ Whatever else we lose, as long as we have Him we are rich; and whatever else we possess, we are poor as long as we have not Him. God is enough; whatever else may go. (Maclaren)"
Notice that in the old King James version, the key word in question is translated, ‘encouraged’, rather than, ‘strengthened’, an important distinction to be sure; because it is from here and only here that we must find our encouragement and strength to soldier on. To look for it anywhere else is too put our confidence in the arm of the flesh, of which Paul concludes that, “…we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh… (Php 3:3)” So, in whatever failures and accompanying stresses we encounter in this life, the mature Christian is exhorted to, “…be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. (Eph 6:10)”, to which we are assured that He will deliver us.
Works Cited
NKJV New King James Version. Holy Bible. Thomas Nelson. Nashville, TN: 2000. Print.
Maclaren, Alexander. Expositions of Holy Scripture. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. 1904-1910, Print.
