Theme: THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF HIS GRACE
DAY 20, Read Ephesians 6:10-18.
BE STRONG IN HIS GRACE
Key Text: “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).
Now Paul himself urged Timothy to, “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” The importance of being strong in the Lord in this age and time cannot be overemphasized. Paul must have written out of the experiences of his life and ministry. He knew first hand what the vagaries of the ministry were and the importance of being spiritual strong in the service of the kingdom. He was always at the frontline of persecution and was buffeted from various angles by foes and the powers of darkness. In the midst of all these, the Holy Spirit made him strong.
Once when he was suffering from the affliction of a thorn in his flesh and he cried out to God, the response the Lord gave to him was to strengthen him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” When his fellow disciples forsook him, he testified that the Lord stood by him and strengthened him, “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me…But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also, I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion” (2 Timothy 4:16,17). Again, we find Paul alluding to divine strength in his prayer for the Christians at Ephesus. He prayed that the Holy Spirit in their inner man might strengthen them with might. “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.” Thus Paul knew how to be strong in the Lord and its importance.
We can be strong in the Lord when the Holy Spirit strengthens us. Only the Holy Spirit can infuse in us the supernatural strength to function in the place of grace. The Holy Spirit is the power of God. As we exercise ourselves in him, we then become strong.
The word of God is a means of spiritual strength, which makes us strong in times of adversity. For the Psalmist the word of God was a source of his strength. He prayed, “My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your word.” Again in verse 92 of the same chapter Psalm 119, he said, “Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.” The word of God is an instrument of warfare against the enemy and his cohorts. Revelation 12:11 records that they overcame by the power of the word.
PRAYER: Oh Lord, may I grow strong in you every day of my life.
