Strength is the Answer
What if giving you an added measure of God’s strength is the answer God gives to your prayers?
Verse of the Day
‘On the day I called, you answered me; you increased strength within me. ‘
Today’s Devotional
I watched a TV show recently where a young boy was being taught by a man how to ride a horse. This young man was scared of horses, but he desperately wanted to conquer his fear. The man was very good at breaking horses. So the lesson included a horse that was not what I would call tame. At first, just mounting the horse was scary for the young man. Then he gets on the horse and gets bucked off after about a minute. There is quite an intense pause at this point. Will he conquer his fear and get back on the horse? The man, as he watches and guides, reminds the boy of what needs to be done. He reminds him what will happen to his fear if he walks away now. He says all of this while standing within the corral with the boy and the horse. But the man doesn’t actually DO anything for the boy. Nor does he touch the horse.
The boy gets bucked off the horse several more times, each time the man teaches and encourages him. After more episodes than I would have endured, the boy finally stays on the horse.
Now, put one of your current struggles into this same scenario. When we pray, I think we want God to magically tame the horse. Or we want God to be the rider instead of us. Or we want God to take the lead rope and gently caress the horse to calm him while we are riding. We want to conquer the fear without facing the fear and doing the things that scare us. And if we try ONE TIME and don’t succeed, we desperately want to walk away.
What if the answer to your most urgent prayer today is God’s gentle encouragement to keep going? To get back on the “horse” you keep falling off of. To hear His voice telling you the Truth. To hear the reminders of His love, even as you are failing. To know that He is standing in the corral with you as you struggle.
What if His presence and encouragement is the strength that we need and the answer to our prayers? Because if God comes in and takes over, then we don’t learn the badly needed lesson. We don’t become more Christ-like if we don’t keep going. And in order to keep going, we need Him standing right there with us and urging us onward, speaking His strength over us.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
What are you calling to God about?
How do you need His strength?
How might He be telling you to keep going?
What do you want to walk away from?
What message do you desperately need to hear from God today?