Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might (Ephesians 6:10)

There are mornings, when I feel more inadequate than others, less up to the task He calls me to. This morning is one of those mornings, and my emotional state seems to be casting me back to the time when I was very weak. At that time, I had not yet learned to be strong in the Lord, in other words I was trying to be strong in my own strength, and I was failing miserably. At that very time the Lord told me I had to be strong, the very thing I was not!

There followed a rather long process of me learning to be strong in the Lord. And as I looked back this morning on the journey, the Lord reminded me of a similar journey that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 1:8ff “We were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.

Now I am not pretending that my burdens were as great as Paul’s (see 2 Corinthians 11:22-28), but like him, I had certainly come to the end of my rope. At such times a crossroads lies before us, we can despair, or we can throw ourselves on the Lord. Paul was without strength (2 Corinthians 1:8), and I was without strength. And like Paul I too was delivered from this form of death. In fact as I write and meditate on these things I can feel myself coming out of myself. And so I can also say with Paul that I am being delivered!

I have to say, that I really don’t understand how the Lord does this, how from being weak because I am using only my own strength, to becoming strong because I am learning to take on His strength. But I have a description of what it feels like. In Matthew 11:29,30 Jesus says “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” I see this as a variable yoke, an unequal yoke in the good sense (see 2 Corinthians 6:14)). If a young ox was yoked with an old ox, the young aux was put on the shorter end of the yoke (the harness, that tied the two oxen together). In this way they could plow a straight furrow, and the older ox did less work than the younger one. It's like the principle of leavers in physics.

It is important to note that Jesus said His yoke was easy, not that it was nonexistent. What I am saying, is that we are still involved in the process, we have to do what we can do. When we do this the Lord takes up the slack. It is a partnership, and we are yoked together with the One who has all the might and the power. So in fact, no matter how weak I am in my own strength, I can go forward in partnership with the Lord to do what He has called me to do.

Father, thank you for reminding me at this principle this morning, as I came to You in weakness. Like Paul, I can say when I am weak, then I am strong (Corinthians 12:9). It’s nonsense to the world, but You are real, and You are a very present help in time of need. Thank You Lord that You are strengthening me even as I write, and that these things keep me coming back to You who is the source and ground of my strength, my hope and my deliverance. I love You Lord in Jesus Name Amen