“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.” [Isaiah 40:29]
DO YOU HAVE A LITTLE VERSE OR PHRASE that’s become a sort of theme in your life, a quick reminder you repeat to yourself when you’re heading into an important meeting, or pushing through a long day, or coaxing yourself out of bed in the morning? I do. On first hearing, it’s not particularly deep or complex. It’s just a simple lyric adapted from a children’s song that many of us learned long before we could begin to fathom its meaning:
“We are weak, but He is strong.”
Over the years, this little phrase (along with its melody, from the chorus of “Jesus Loves Me”) has often been my first, conscious waking thought. And oh, how I need this truth reinforced in my thinking day after day. Because beneath its nursery school exterior lies a profound truth about an incredible exchange God offers us. We give Him our weakness; He gives us His strength.
When we go forth into battle each day, we are no match for sin and temptation. No match for the challenges facing our families, our friendships, our futures. But our enemy, no matter how fierce—and his encroaching world system, no matter how thick and oppressive—is no match for our Lord. Yes, “we are weak.” But even more true, “He is strong!”
If we were writing the script for our lives, we probably wouldn’t assign ourselves the same tasks God has given us. We’d play it safe. We’d choose parts we could more easily manage. But by placing us into situations beyond our ability to handle, God allows us to experience something greater than our own feeble capabilities. We get the opportunity to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Eph. 6:10).
What obstacle or issue is proving more than you can handle today? Once you come to the end of your own strength, once you acknowledge your utter weakness, you will be in a place to enter into His endless, limitless strength. [The Quiet Place]
