Directly from that I began reading Romans 8:26, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." A lot of times, especially when I pray, I find myself at a loss for words. What do I pray for specifically? It seems that I pray for the same things over and over again no matter what the situation: God's will be done, strength, peace, endurance, and wisdom. They seem to be the staple things that we pray for. But what if we stopped merely spewing words--what we thought the sitution needs--and instead listen to what God lays on our hearts. Like Francis Chan says in the opening chapter of "Crazy Love", "What if we stop talking at God?" Going off of that, what if we actually believe that God will give us strength and come through? "The Spirit helps us in our weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:10 also plays a part here. And then we get to the end of Romans 8. Boom goes the dynamite.
It's amazing how the Bible works together. We just read what happens in the Old Testament when people call on the name of the Lord. We just read in Romans 8:26 how God intercedes for us. Now, we read that God is for us. God is on the sideline of heaven cheering us on. 8:34 says that Jesus is at the right hand of God (which, in case you don't know, was--in that time period--the hand of honor as opposed to the left hand) interceding and cheering us on. Nothing can stop us when we have God on our side. Then finally in 37 we read, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." The chapter ends with the affirmation that nothing can seperate us from the love of Christ. To quote the spin that the band My Heart To Fear put on these last two verses, "No demon, no man, no power that be will ever have the strength to keep you from Me." Isn't that truth incredible? Doesn't that make you want to fight your hardest and do everything you can to serve God wholly?
Lastly, the Daily Bible led me to Psalms 18:37-50. This is the second time that I'm reading through Psalms this year. The Bible took me through it the first half of the year, now it's taking me through it again. Time and time again I've turned back and looked to the Psalms for the strength that God will give me that day. It's a long passage, and I won't quote the whole thing, but David is finding his strength in God. His strength comes from God and he goes back to battle against them and wins. Verse 39 says, "You [God] armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet."
See, all this is great. We've looked at several different passages today and all point towards God giving us the strength when we need it. God gives us the willpower to fight against not only the attacks of Satan, but the multiple ways the world will try to put us down as well. But that's not the end. The end is summed up in Psalms 18:46-50. David doesn't just end the Psalms by saying that God will gives us strength, he ends the Psalms with praise and thanksgiving to God for the strengtht that He provided. "The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!" Verse 49, "Therefore, I will praise you among the nations, O Lord; I will sing praises to Your name."
The past few weeks I've been in a battle to the death with my flesh. My body screams and pulls one way, but the Spirit leads me another. To be honest, I haven't been seeking for strength from God. I have to admit, I've been seeking my own strength. The problem with that is that I'm never strong enough. I always have my downfalls and I am a very weak person. This post is more for me than anyone else. I need to focus more on the strength of God than the failing strength of me.
My Heart To Fear - "The Witching Hour"
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