Strength from Honesty
Are you honest with yourself (and God) about your strength?
Verse of the Day
‘I love you, Lord; you are my strength.’
Today’s Devotional
I love the simplicity of this verse. It is an honest admission of truth.
How honest are you with yourself about where your strength comes from?
Let’s just be honest about this. Most people think their personal strength is their own. We think we created the environment in which our own physical and mental abilities have caused things to happen. I personally do not believe that to be the case.
When studying strength and power, we are usually interested in such subject matter because we want more for ourselves. That is true for me. I would love to read and study God’s word and discover some “trick” that enables me to tap into the power of God. The problem with that line of thinking is that selfishness gets in the way.
God is my strength. And I don’t mean this in some trite way. God is the reason that my lungs inflate. God causes my body to digest food and give energy to my cells. God allows my eyes to see written words and my brain to understand them. God gifted me with certain skills and abilities that I can use. God is the power behind every single thing I am capable of doing. I think we all need to be honest with ourselves about where our strength comes from.
So if that’s true, how do I fit in? If God is responsible for it all, my choices shouldn’t matter. Right?
Wrong.
God created us with choice. We get to choose, all day every day, how we use the power He has allowed us to use. We get to choose if we partner with Him to further His Kingdom. We get to choose if we take the power He has given us and do our own thing. We can also choose to use the power God has given us to hurt others, usually because we want something no matter the cost to others.
How we use the power God has given us goes back to the first part of today’s verse. Do you love Him? If you do, it will affect how you use any and all abilities that you have. And if you have made some wrong choices with the power God has given you, an honest admission of that is a great place to start.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How have you been guilty of “claiming” your own power?
How do you need to realign your thinking about where your power and strength come from?
How are you currently using the strength God has given you?
Do you love God? Does your use of power and strength align with your answer?