Strength to Carry On
God uses ordinary people. He uses people who have been hurt, who make mistakes and who struggle with life issues. God uses ordinary people.
We often elevate people in scripture to “super human” status and cannot imagine God using us as He did them. But actually they too were ordinary people. The Apostle Paul was very open about his own humanness in his second letter to the Corinthians. Three times he lists the ways he struggled with life’s realities. One of them is in chapter 4 where we read, “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed.” A paraphrase of the last statement could be, “We are knocked down but know knocked out!”
Being a faithful Christian doesn’t mean you never get knocked down. It means that when you get knocked down you get up again and again and again!
The ability to get up again after being knocked down is called endurance. It is a trait desperately needed in these days of increasing spiritual deception and demonic warfare against the church. In Christ we find the strength to carry on.
We see the strength to get up and keep going in our Lord Jesus Christ. Carrying His cross to Golgotha was anything but easy. He stumbled under its weight—but He got up and kept going. Even though He was weakened by a brutal beating; even though He was the perfect Son of God; even though He could have called ten thousand angels to rescue Him from the torture ahead of Him He got up and continued on. The Bible says, “He endured the cross, despising the shame.” (Hebrews 12:2)
We need supernatural strength to get up off the mat after a knockdown. That strength comes from the Holy Spirit. It is the strength Paul wanted for the believers at Ephesus when he prayed they would, “be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16). God is able to give us a fresh infusion of strength by His Spirit into our inner man. Then, in spite of what knocked us down, we find the strength to get up and keep following Jesus. Like Paul we are knocked down but not knocked out!
“So put on all the armor that God gives. Then when that evil day comes, you will be able to defend yourself. And when the battle is over, you will still be standing firm.” Ephesians 6:13 CEV
God gives us the strength to stand our ground and not shrink back. He enables us with determination, courage and steadfastness. As the battle rages between the kingdom of darkness and the church of Jesus Christ God is looking for warriors who will endure. Martin Luther’s words say it well.
“The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.”
Stand strong my brothers and sisters; stand strong!
Pastor Dan