The Lord hath sent strength for thee (Ps.68.28, PBV).
The Lord imparts unto us that primary strength of character which makes everything in life work with intensity and decision. We are "strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." And the strength is continuous; reserves of power come to us which we cannot exhaust.
"As thy days, so shall thy strength be"—strength of will, strength of affection, strength of judgment, strength of ideals and achievement.
"The Lord is my strength" to go on. He gives us power to tread the dead level, to walk the long lane that seems never to have a turning, to go through those long reaches of life which afford no pleasant surprise, and which depress the spirits in the sameness of a terrible drudgery.
"The Lord is my strength" to go up. He is to me the power by which I can climb the Hill Difficulty and not be afraid.
"The Lord is my strength" to go down. It is when we leave the bracing heights, where the wind and the sun have been about us, and when we begin to come down the hill into closer and more sultry spheres, that the heart is apt to grow faint. I heard a man say the other day concerning his growing physical frailty, "It is the coming down that tires me!"
"The Lord is my strength" to sit still. And how difficult is the attainment! Do we not often say to one another, in seasons when we are compelled to be quiet, "If only I could do something!"
When the child is ill, and the mother stands by in comparative impotence, how severe is the test! But to do nothing, just to sit still and wait, requires tremendous strength.
"The Lord is my strength!" "Our sufficiency is of God" (2 Cor. 3:5.
~L. B. Cowman~
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Isaiah 14:10
Art thou become like unto us?
What must be the apostate professor's doom when his naked soul appears before God? How will he bear that voice, "Depart, ye cursed; thou hast rejected me, and I reject thee; thou hast played the harlot, and departed from Me: I also have banished thee for ever from my presence, and will not have mercy upon thee." What will be this wretch's shame at the last great day when, before assembled multitudes, the apostate shall be unmasked? See the profane, and sinners who never professed religion, lifting themselves up from their beds of fire to point at him. "There he is," says one, "will he preach the gospel in hell?" "There he is," says another, "he rebuked me for cursing, and was a hypocrite himself!" "Aha!" says another, "here comes a psalm-singing Methodist-one who was always at his meeting; he is the man who boasted of his being sure of everlasting life; and here he is!" No greater eagerness will ever be seen among Satanic tormentors, than in that day when devils drag the hypocrite's soul down to perdition. Bunyan pictures this with massive but awful grandeur of poetry when he speaks of the back-way to hell. Seven devils bound the wretch with nine cords, and dragged him from the road to heaven, in which he had professed to walk, and thrust him through the back-door into hell. Mind that back-way to hell, professors! "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith." Look well to your state; see whether you be in Christ or not. It is the easiest thing in the world to give a lenient verdict when oneself is to be tried; but O, be just and true here. Be just to all, but be rigorous to yourself. Remember if it be not a rock on which you build, when the house shall fall, great will be the fall of it. O may the Lord give you sincerity, constancy, and firmness; and in no day, however evil, may you be led to turn aside.
~Charles Spurgeon~
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The Prayer of Faith
Over the last few devotionals, we have looked at faith—what true faith looks like, and the motive behind the faith that pleases God.
In James 5:15 we are told,
And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Clearly, James wants us to know that when we pray a prayer of faith, God will answer it. In this passage, we are told that through that prayer God will indeed heal those who are sick, and raise them up.
So what is it that makes up the prayer of faith? There are three components, all of which we have touched on in the last few days.
The prayer of faith is a prayer that:
- Does not waver. It doesn't vacillate, moving back and forth. It is anchored on the promise of God.
- Is followed by corresponding actions.
- Is prayed from right motives.
The example James cites of someone who prayed a prayer of faith is Elijah. I encourage you to read his story in 1 Kings 17. There you find that, through the prayer of faith, God shut up the heavens and there was no rain. And then, by another prayer of faith, the heavens were opened and rain came down.
Elijah expressed his faith when he said he heard the sound of abundance of rain. He made that statement before there was a cloud in the sky or before a drop of rain ever fell!
When you and I don't waver in our faith, when we show our faith by corresponding action, and when we pray with right motives, God will act. As surely as Elijah heard that rain by faith, you can hear the rain…whatever that represents in your life. That is the prayer of faith.
~Bayless Conley~
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I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. (Ephesians 3:16 NLT)
The strength of the Lord's people is none other than the strength of the Holy Spirit in the inward man. Right at the very center of the being, deeper than thought or reason, deeper than emotion or feeling, deeper than all that which comprises the more outward man which, under given circumstances, may prove weak and incapable of standing up to the situation. In the variations of our soul life, the changes of our moods, our ideas, our attitudes, our feelings, our minds; deeper down there is that strength which does not let us go. That is the true nature of spirituality. It is not the tremendously forceful conviction of our intellects or the mighty power of our wills. When these cannot stand up to conditions of intense spiritual antagonism, opposition or perplexity, there is that more inward thing, right in the inward man, which is of God – the Holy Spirit: “Strengthened with might by His Spirit into the inward man.”
Test that out and the result is that when the mind is bewildered by the perplexity of a situation, and the arguments are all in the direction that a mistake has been made, a wrong course has been taken, everything is false – when all the feelings are churned up, disturbed, anxious, fearful, or when there are no feelings at all, they are simply petrified by the position – when circumstances are all arguing in the opposite direction of that which we, in the purest moments of our fellowship with God determined upon. The world around us – and very closely around us, even within the sphere of our own natural life, our own soul life – is an inexplicable mystery. Then spirituality is proved by that inward strength which abides: that standing when you cannot go forward; that holding when you can do nothing; that remaining when all the forces are seeking to sweep you off your feet. That represents a measure of spirituality. That is the true nature of the child of God. The opposite is to be carried away by argument, reasoning, appearance, circumstance, and all such things. That proves a lack of true spirituality. In a sentence, true spirituality is not to live on the outside; it is to live with God right down deep in the inner part of your own being, where He, the Spirit, is.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
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From the moment he arrived on the battle ground, what we see of David is that he was an outstanding representative of God. As I started reading our passage, it hit me that David's standing up to and taking on Goliath is a wonderful example for us as we represent and stand up for Christ in the world today. So I started jotting down the things I noticed from David's example that I could put into practice. Here are a few of the things I came up with:
- He was confident in God
- He wasn't ashamed
- He didn't hesitate
- He didn't concern himself with comparisons
- He didn't question the situation
- He used the tools he was familiar with
- He "ran toward the battle" (vs. 48)
- He remained humble
- He finished strong
What encouraged you the most from David's example? What's one thing you learned about representing God that you can put into practice?
~Tami~
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