The Lord God Himself is Strength.

Believer, see the Lord God as Strength-personified in 1 Samuel 15:29-

"And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent." 1 Samuel 15:29 .

In Christ, God does not just give us strength in the sense of a boss equipping an employee with tools for work and expecting him to carry out his job by himself based on his own strength, abilities or qualifications. Our qualification for His Strength is our utter weakness and helplessness. His strength is made perfect in weakness.

God does not just give us Strength. He becomes our Strength.

This is how come David could praise the Lord even at some of the lowest moments of his life, like the time he fled from Saul to Gath and pretended to be insane before the king of the Philistines- to the extent of drooling all over his beard. It was after his escape that he wrote Psalm 34-

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Psalms 34:1.

Lump on the breast staring one in the face? Child burning with fever? About to lose one's means of livelihood? Lying through your nose to save your skin like Peter when he denied Christ, or like Abraham when he lied that Sarah was not his wife? Found oneself in such dire financial straits that one resorts to budget padding in order to make the ends meet? Only by Grace can anyone of us rejoice and praise God from our hearts during such trials. Of ourselves, we would all be asking:

"Lord why, why, why is this kind of thing happening to me? Why am I a fugitive running from my own home? Didn't you just anoint me as king over all of Israel?"

Thank God that He knows how screwed up we can be of ourselves so He helps us in our weaknesses. Sometimes, we forget what a loving Father we have in Christ and how His delight is to help and bless us. We forget how helpless and powerless we are of ourselves sometimes so we tend to plod on in that haughty "pre-denial Peter-like" confidence in our own strength to live right and produce good success. Proverbs 11:2 tells us:

"When swelling and pride come, then emptiness and shame come also, but with the humble (those who are lowly, who have been pruned or chiseled by trial, and renounce self) are skillful and godly Wisdom and soundness."

Beloved of God, we don’t have to learn lessons the hard and disgraceful way like Peter did. Many of the trials that we experience in life we do not have to go through. If we, in agreement with God’s word, confess always that we have no good/righteousness and no strength of our own and that Christ is our all, no Satan will bother to come and sift us for that good/strength that many claim to have.

Should Satan or his “pastor” agents taunt us for our visible imperfections in a bid to put us in Judas’ self-help and consequently depression/suicide mode or should circumstances demand that we produce good, Christ our Good and our Strength will never disappoint. This is why we sing "‘Tis no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me.” Proverbs‬ ‭17:3‬ ‭says:‬‬

“In the same way that gold and silver are refined by fire, the Lord purifies your heart by the tests and trials of life.”

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Understand that God does not tempt anyone. As He did with Peter who denied Christ, sometimes, God permits those tests that Satan means for our destruction. God uses those trials to purify us of all pride and arrogance aka trust in self/the arm of flesh for godly living. He uses them to make us trust less in ourselves and to give us the opportunity to trust Him more: 1 Corinthians 10-

“12 So beware if you think it could never happen to you, lest your pride becomes your downfall. 13 We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously."

By Grace, let's not be like Judas who failed but plodded on in his human strength to make things right with God.

When, by Grace, our complete trust and dependence is on the Lord God, He becomes our Strength. His is Strength that surpasses all human reasoning: the problem is still staring us in the face but His Strength keeps us calm and makes us just know that all things are working together for good for us. All things are not necessarily all good things.

By God’s Grace, let’s keep our eyes fixed on Christ our Salvation and our Strength and avoid the distractions of human strength/arm of flesh-driven works done in order to get God to bless and to save, just as the Israelites that were bitten by fiery serpents in the wilderness looked to the bronze serpent and were made whole and saved from the fiery serpent’s sting (sin nature) and its deathly symptoms (acts of sin that lead to death.) All earthly ills (stress, lack, unemployment, the lack of good deeds, laziness, depression) are “death begun.” Christ gave His life to save us from them all:

“He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.” Titus‬ ‭2:14‬

When our trust is in Christ alone and not our silly efforts to save ourselves, God fills us to overflowing with His Wisdom (Christ Himself) and thus we find ourselves having and exhibiting His traits (godliness) as well as making the right decisions that bring GOOD success in our family, career, relationships and every other facet of life, not the temporary kind of success that adds sorrow with it. This is why we sing: “‘Tis no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me.”

None of self; all of Christ. This is the Good News.