I am with you

Don’t worry—I am with you. Don’t be afraid—I am your God. I will make you strong and help you. I will support you with my right hand that brings victory. (Isaiah 41:10)

If most of us started each new day with this promise in mind, I wonder just how differently we'd face the issues of the day? I imagine we might just not be as haggard at the end of the day, exhibiting just a bit more wisdom with the actions of the day, and perhaps with a bit more accomplished than we'd see without his help. The instructions: 1) stop your worrying, 2) let your fear go, 3) trust your God, 4) lean into his strength, and 5) you will feel his support.

Stop worrying - because God isn't deserting us, but going with us, having prepared a way before us. If we'd just get this simple instruction worked into our brains, reminding our emotions that they aren't in control, God is, then maybe we'd find it a bit easier to turn away those worries when they start to creep in.

Let go of your fears. There is nothing like showing your enemy your belly and neck regions to make your enemy feel he is in control. God doesn't ask us to just lay down and take whatever comes our way. He reminds us of the importance of putting on his full armor because we don't want the enemy to gain any advantage over us.

Trust your God - not the situation, the threats, or the imagined issues. Trust YOUR God. Not the god of this world or the 'thing' that might happen if we just let go and lean into Jesus. Fear is an emotion that is not always based in fact. The fact we need to recount throughout our day is that we serve the God of the Universe - the Creator and Sustainer of all things. 

Lean into his strength and put down the desire to do things in your own strength or wisdom. Both will not sustain us long. We need his wisdom as well as his strength - we find both when we lean into him. That might mean we stop seeing the issue and look for the solution. To understand the issue, we might need his wisdom to 'break it into pieces'. An issue 'dissected' under his watchful eye is easier to resist, solve, or remove!

Feel his support. It is indeed a thing to feel his strength with us. You might not realize it if you don't start at the top of this list and work your way down. Get to the point of leaning into his strength and you are sure to realize his support. Just sayin!

Attended Well

Figs might not grow on the fig trees, and grapes might not grow on the vines. Olives might not grow on the olive trees, and food might not grow in the fields. There might not be any sheep in the pens or cattle in the barns. But I will still be glad in the Lord and rejoice in God my Savior. The Lord God gives me my strength. He helps me run fast like a deer. He leads me safely on the mountains. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

None of us wants to hear of bad things happening, much less that we won't have food to eat, the land growing barren before us, the storehouses emptied of all reserve. Kind of sounds a little 'apocalyptic' doesn't it? Do 'lean times' mean we will trust God any less? I certainly hope not! The harder things get for us, the greater our faith is put to the test. The more it is tested, the more we find ourselves either turning into God, or running from what he is doing. The direction we take determines the outcome we will realize.

The Lord God gives me my strength. That one statement reveals more than we might first appreciate. Our strength isn't 'mustered up' in the lean or bad times. It comes because we serve a faithful God who delights in ensuring his children are 'attended well' in the worst of times. There is plenty of ugliness around us, but we don't have to get mired by it. There is a plethora of hurt everywhere we look, but we don't have to become the next victim. There is an abundance of misguided 'wisdom' given out from our airwaves and media outlets each day, but we don't have to let our hearts be burdened by the doom and gloom of their 'reports'. 

Why? Our strength is not our own. Our ability is not limited to that which we possess by nature. We have God's strength and ability to lead us forward, past all the negativity of the times, and straight into the goodness he will provide. One might think it is God's strength that is being tested in these difficult times, but his strength never wavers, so that cannot be it. The testing is meant to reveal where it is we find our rooting - will it be in the things of this world, or in the power and strength of the Almighty God? We might want to find a 'more friendly place' at the moment, but chances are the greatest amount of growth our 'roots' can realize is right where we find ourselves right now. Just saying!

Strength Has Many Forms

There are a couple forms of strength that we use to 'get by' in life. One is this thing we call physical strength. It is the 'brute strength' we use to pick up a heavy object or move a stalled car. It is technically the ability exert physical force upon an object. There is also mental strength - the thing we use to overcome pain and push a bit further when all we want to do is give up on that five-mile run. If allows us to be productive throughout our day and to be more efficient. It is how we get things done. There is emotional strength, which some clearly lack, while others seem to have it all together all of the time. Sometimes we struggle to make it through a day because we are a basket case, while at others we can muddle through just fine. The type of strength we all need but may not have right now is this thing we refer to as spiritual strength. It is the God-given strength that goes beyond physical, mental, or emotional strength. 

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

God's strength surpasses all other forms of strength, but he uses all the other forms of strength to get things done through us in this world. He uses our physical strength to build his churches, move church gear in and out of auditoriums each Sunday, and even to see an elderly woman's house cleaned up. This spiritual strength actually 'bolsters' all other forms of strength we utilize. It gives us insight into what we should be doing every day, but we oftentimes don't even bother to ask God how we should use the strength he gives. We just go aimlessly about our 'routine' and then we wonder why we are lacking some form of strength for whatever it is we are attempting to accomplish.

Spiritual strength is developed when we take time to read his Word, engage in conversation with him, and worship at his feet. Unlike all the other forms of strength, this one is not of our own making, but we do need to make ourselves available to him if we are to see it developed. Unlimited resources are available to us when we do. So, why do we resist these quiet times with God, time in his Word, or those moments of reflective praise? It is usually because something else distracts us and we allow those distractions to take precedence over the 'development time'. Power comes as we quiet down long enough to allow it to be developed deep within. Unlike all other forms of strength, it is in the times when we reveal our weaknesses that we are made strong. Just sayin!

It is a new day

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. 

(Eleanor Roosevelt)

Yet there is one ray of hope: his compassion never ends. It is only the Lord’s mercies that have kept us from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day. My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him, to those who seek for him. It is good both to hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. (Lamentations 3:21-26)

It is good BOTH to HOPE and WAIT QUIETLY. In the quietness of waiting, do you brim with hope and expectation? If you are relying upon the loving-kindness of God today, then I daresay you are filled with the best hope there is! It might be hard for us to understand God's compassion, but we don't have to fully understand it to appreciate it and thank him with a grateful heart. The Lord's mercies are new each and every day - dare I say they are new each and every moment of each and every day? There has never been even one time I have turned to him in quiet expectation for his mercy that I have not received it in abundance. How about you?

With the new day comes new strengths and new thoughts. Yesterday may have been a bit challenging but remember yesterday is in the past now - it need not give you challenges today. As new as this day is dawning upon us, so are God's mercies and his strength. With God's mercy comes his strength - we don't get one without the other. What does mercy do? It gives what was not earned or deserved - along with the strength to get up and start walking once again. We may have fallen, or just plain sat down in defeat, but today's new mercies put us on new footing and give us new 'stamina' for the day ahead.

Stop for a moment and ask God what new 'thought' he is placing within your mind and heart today. We don't do that often enough - we just think those things come into our minds all on their own sometimes, but God places new thoughts within us each and every day. Some will become the seed thoughts upon which we build bigger dreams and hopes. Others will be the ones we know to act upon right now - having received all we need in the way of his strength and protection to take those steps he is asking us to take. We might want to drag our feet a little, remembering the challenges of yesterday all too frequently, but when we finally realize we cannot change yesterday, we will be apt to use today's strength to put today's thoughts into action! Just sayin!

Fresh strength for drop-outs

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying, “God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”? Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything, inside and out. He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts. For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall. But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind. (Ezekial 40:31)

This passage never grows old for me because I find something that bolsters my inner man each and every time I read it. Complaining or whining a bit lately? Maybe what we need when this happens is a fresh reminder of God's presence - nothing else quite satisfies like his being right there in the midst of our 'moments'. We are the kind of folks who have a great deal of 'wavering' in our days, aren't we? We might not think so, but if we really look at ourselves carefully, we might just find we waver a bit on this point or that - sometimes standing quite strong and without compromise, while at others we seem to bend a bit too easily. Our 'stand' is much more conditional than God's and this is an important thing for us each to commit to memory!

God never tires - even when I ask him the same thing over and over again, or take him the same issue repeatedly. He never tires in his giving of grace and he never tires in hearing us attempt to explain 'why' we did whatever it is we did when we come to him in need of that grace! He already knows the 'why' behind our short-fall today. He knows where we need his touch even before we come to the realization we are lacking something we desperately hunger and thirst to receive. I find great encouragement in knowing he energizes us - not just with the type of physical energy that helps us make it to the end of the day, but with the spiritual and emotional energies we require to make our 'stand' stronger today than it was yesterday.

Every time we fall short of whatever it is we were aiming at, we might get a little down on ourselves for that shortcoming. In fact, we might just engage in a little 'negative self-talk' where we convince ourselves we will never get things right in that area of our lives. We will always struggle with compromise and each time we do, God is right there to infuse us with his grace. We see ourselves as never getting stronger than the battle we face, but God knows today we are just a bit stronger than we were yesterday and we will be a bit stronger tomorrow - all because of embraced grace. He never grows weary in giving out of his abundant grace - we should never grow weary in embracing it!

Fresh strength for drop-outs. What exactly does that say to you today? To me, it means I don't ever need to listen when my mind, will, or emotions tell me to just quit because I will 'never get it right'. Those three (mind, will and emotions) will wage war against each other and attempt to send me into a tailspin some call 'failure' or 'regret'. God's answer to that 'war' within is simply to draw from his strength so our strength is renewed beyond what our mind would imagine. It doesn't say we 'might' find new hope or strength in him -  it says we 'will' find it. As many times as we need it - even if the last time you needed that infusion was just 5 minutes ago - there is another 'fresh infusion' waiting. Just sayin!