Articles
What Makes Us Strong?
As I prayed this morning, I asked God to make me stronger. Is that where we normally stop? "God give me strength!".
For me, sometimes that is where it stops, but today my mind and heart carried it a bit further. I pondered how, when and where God gives me strength.
Physical strength comes through exercising muscles, we all know that. Mental and Spiritual strength would obviously come through exercising our brains. The short answer is that I gain strength when I gain knowledge. Proverbs 24:5 says, "A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might,..." But what knowledge makes Christians stronger?
As Paul wrote to the church of Colossae, he told them he prayed for them every day, that they might "...be filled with the knowledge of his will..." Col 1:9. A few verses later he says, "In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col 2:3
We need to know more about Christ for sure, but more than that, we need to KNOW CHRIST! Facts about Jesus are great, and necessary, but we need to know Him, and have a faithful, close, personal, obedient relationship with Him. As we grow closer to Him, we become more like Him, and the obvious result is that we are stronger, and are more capable of defeating Satan and the temptations he sends our way.
If we want to be strong, we need to be learners, studiers and imitators. If we are genuinely wanting to grow as Christians, we need to be in His word, learning more about Him, and putting that into practice as we seek to obey Him in everything. Strength is a product of this kind of wisdom, and as Solomon says, "A wise man is full of strength...".
