Message of the Week
All Through Christ
My topic deals with a verse from Phili 4:13 which says, ?I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.? Paul said this verse. He was shipwrecked, beaten, and imprisoned; Paul had seen the down side of life. But Paul had discovered a secret in all situations: his deep desire to live in Christ. In this he found strength to handle anything…
The key is the word anything. It is easy for us to serve the Lord with all our hearts when everything is going good, but the real question is, how close are we to God when things don?t go as planned? It is easy to fall back on God when some things aren?t going right. The thing we should remember is that we can do all with God anytime no matter what the situation is.
A good example of this is from a man in the Bible named Job. Job lost everything that he ever owned and still after all that had happened, he still put his faith in the Lord. Even after his wife told him to turn away from God, all he could say was, ?The Lord gives and the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord.?
God?s strength is all we need to get through the day, but one thing to remember is a little something called faith. We get all our strength from the Lord because we believe in Him but without faith, we cannot overcome.
A soldier in the army camp will jump out of bed every morning to run and do pushups. He may not like it, but he?ll do it because his commanding officer has ordered him. He continues to feel discomfort because he knows that it is a part of a military life. A civilian on the other hand might start an exercise program, but when the going gets tough and when his muscles feel sore, or when his schedule gets busy, he?ll just quit exercising. If anyone asks him about it, he might just shrug and say, ?I tried work outs but they don?t do anything for me.? Some believers are like that. They hear the Word and think, ?Well I?ll try that.? But when times get tough, they give up.
That?s not how it should be. After all, we?re not civilians, we?re soldiers. We don?t try faith but we make it our lifestyle. We walk by faith whether it?s easy or hard. We don?t do it so we?ll be blessed. We do it because we want to please the Lord. He is our Commander in Chief and the Scripture says that without faith it is impossible to please Him.
Of course we will be blessed, if we continue to live this way. We?ll be healed, delivered and grow in every area of life because God said we would. That however is not our motivation. We are motivated by our love and desire to serve the Lord. That?s what makes us believe what He says and get us through the hard times. In our day-to-day activities, God is our strength. We can call on His name at anytime. Phili 4:13 should be a motivation for us. We can do everything but only with God?s help.
Credit: Jency Varughese