This is one of my favorite verses, I can do all things through Him who gives me strength. Jesus gives us the strength to do all things that He leads us to, calls us to. He also gives us the strength to endure the places we get our selves into.
But it is not just the strength… Paul tells us more, a contentment. “for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.” How many of us can do this? How many of us are content with what we have? We struggle for more. We worry about tomorrow. We want what everyone else has, we have to keep up with the Jones…. Even if we are under fed. Even if we don’t have everything we think we want, we still have reason to rejoice and to lean on the strength of Jesus. And that is the easy side to see in Paul’s writing, when we are down and out we can and should lean on Jesus. But Paul said that he has learned how to be content in all that he has, in little and in plenty! Are we content and leaning on the strength of Jesus when everything is going good? Do we look for the strength of Jesus to see us through the good times? Through when we think we don’t need him, because it is exactly when we thing we don’t need him, that we need him the most.
And that leads us to another favorite verse of mine, Jeremiah 29:11 – For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. We have a hope in God through the strength of Jesus and that is a hope and a strength we need every day, good or bad!
Daddy God, help us to lean on you and live in the hope and strength you give us, guiding us in the life you have for us…
aSacredRebel 