The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Weak In Him, Strong In Him"
"We also are weak in Him" (II Corinthians 13:4).
"Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might" (Ephesians 6:10).
So, which is it, strong in the Lord, or weak in Him?
It's both. Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, even devoted believers have no strength to take even the first step of a genuine journey of godliness. "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). We forever exist as the dependent party in the relationship between the Lord Jesus and ourselves. We serve as vessels of His content, that is, God made us to receive and assimilate His vibrant life whereby our spirits, minds, emotions, wills, and bodies become His means of revealing Himself through us. Innately weak, but immeasurably strengthened by the power of Christ as we trust and submit to Him - this is the born again believer whose "can do nothing" serves as the conduit through which flows "I can do all things through Christ" (Philippians 4:13).
Never must we forget or neglect the awareness of our utter need for our Lord's strength. However, never should we emphasize our weakness as the primary truth of our being. God's living, involved, and active presence provides this reality: "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). "I will dwell in them and walk in them" declares the Lord of His trusting children (II Corinthians 6:16; emphasis added). God does not sit on a throne in our hearts, as it were. He rather "worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). This we must believe because it is true, and because to the degree we affirm the gift of our Lord's mighty working in us will be the degree to which we experience the power thereof. "The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).
Our challenge regarding faithfulness is far greater than we think. "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin" (Romans 8:10). Our human faculties and members inherited from Adam possess no inherent strength for our journey of godliness. They were never meant to. God rather calls us to "labor according to His working, which worketh in me mightily" (Colossians 1:29). Like the lamp that sits on my desk, providing illumination not of itself, but rather of electrical energy, our Father made us to receive "the power that worketh in us" as the means whereby we trust and obey Him. "Weak in Him?" Yes, but weak for the purpose of realizing our opportunity to "be strong in the Lord and in the power of might." This is the Christian life, or rather, the life of Christ revealed in Christians as we humbly acknowledge our need, but even more, as we confidently affirm His dynamic and involved presence in us.
"If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (enliven) your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
(Romans 8:10-11)
"Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us."
(Ephesians 3:20)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart."
(Jeremiah 15:16).
6503
No comments:
Post a Comment