God’s strength is received by faith. “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chron 16:9). Do you hear that? “Strong support” to the one whose heart is His. This means that by faith in Him, you have His strength as your supply.

Christians work hard. We work to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:15). We work to obey God, to love God, and to make Him known. We read our Bibles, and pray, and give, and evangelize. We strive to be patient, and kind, and merciful, and hospitable. We are commanded to “be strong in the Lord” (Eph 6:10). Yes! We want to be those who are willing to put our shoulder to the plow and not look back. But we are not only commanded to be strong. We are commanded to be strong in real strength.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might (Eph 6:10). We are to be strong, “in the Lord”. We are never commanded to be strong in ourselves. The Apostle Paul felt this weakness. “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Rom 7:18). Jesus, in His humanity, knew the weakness of the flesh. In the garden He said, “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt 26:41). He says again, “the flesh is no help at all” (John 6:63). He goes so far as to say, “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That man-made, fleshly strength is of no value in real godly living. Christians need to be strong in the Lord, not in themselves.

Where does this strength come from?

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