Gaining Strength from God
Psalm 37:39 But the
salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength
in the time of trouble. 40
And the LORD shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the
wicked, And save them, Because they trust in Him.
Psalm 29:11 The
LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with
peace.
These scriptures reveal
to us some wonderful news. If we are Gods people and we put our faith and trust
him he will strengthen us in our time of need and this is what I want to focus
in on this morning. We have had several deaths lately and we have also had many
who have been struggling with their health. So I thought it would be very
appropriate that we talk about God and the strength that we can draw from him.
Sometimes when tribulations come our way over and over again it can begin to
beat us down and can lead some to fall away from God. But its very important
that we remember to rely upon God during the difficult times. We need to learn
to lean upon his everlasting arms and to cast all our cares and concerns on
him. You see when we became Christians we became Gods chosen people and because
of that we have truly been blessed in the fact that we can and will receive
strength from God.
1 Chronicles
This is what I hope to accomplish in this lesson is to get
you to realize how important is for us seek the lord and his strength
especially during difficult times of our lives. I don’t want us to ever forget
that God is always there for us to help us in our time of need. The first thing
I would like to do is to examine the OT and see what it says about drawing
strength from God. I like what is says in,
Isaiah 41:9 You whom
I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its farthest regions,
And said to you, 'You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not
cast you away: 10 Fear not,
for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will
strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right
hand.'
The lord is simply saying
that when you are his servant he will not put to the side and ignore you no he
will strengthen and help you when need his helping hand and tells us not to
fear or to become discouraged since he is our God. It should be great comfort
to every single Christian just knowing that we do have God who has made this
promise to us. Lets now take a look at several OT examples of those who
understood that they could draw strength from God.
Exodus 15:1 Then
Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and spoke, saying:
"I will sing to the LORD, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and
its rider He has thrown into the sea! 2
The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is
my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him.
Our first example has to
do with Moses and the children of
Our
next example come from the story of Sampson and Delilah. We should all be
familiar with this story. Sampson marries this women and over and over again
she tries to find out what makes him so strong so that the Philistines can over
power him. Sampson had to know what she was doing but finally he broke down and
told her the truth that his hair was his strength. Of course she cut it off
while he slept and this time the Philistines overtook him and gouged out his
eyes and now he was at event where the Philistines were thanking their God for
overcoming him and they ask for Sampson to be brought before them to perform.
Lets pick up this story in,
Judges 16:26 Then
Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, "Let me feel the pillars
which support the temple, so that I can lean on them." 27 Now the temple was full of men
and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there -- about three
thousand men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed. 28 Then Samson called to the LORD,
saying, "O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this
once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines
for my two eyes!" 29 And
Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he
braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. 30 Then Samson said, "Let me
die with the Philistines!" And he pushed with all his might, and
the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the
dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.
Sampson
was confident that if he prayed to God for strength that he would receive it
and sure enough he did. Here we have a man that had been made blind and ridiculed
yet he was able to gain strength from God through his prayer. As Christians
today we need to keep in mid this simply lesson that no matter how badly we
have been beaten weather physically or mentally we are only one prayer away
from drawing strength from God.
There
are many well worded songs with in Psalms that speak of God and the wonderful
strength that we can gain from him I want to share at least one of these with
you and it comes from
Psalm 46:1 God is
our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, Even
though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst
of the sea; 3 Though its
waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its
swelling. 4 There is a
river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of
the tabernacle of the Most High. 5
God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her,
just at the break of dawn. 6
The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth
melted. 7 The LORD of hosts is
with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. 8 Come, behold
the works of the LORD, Who has made desolations in the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end
of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot
in the fire. 10 Be still, and
know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be
exalted in the earth! 11 The
LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.
We should never get to
the point in our Christians life where we think that the Lords hands are
shortened and that he cannot help us. From this Psalm that I just read shows us
that God is always there and if we will just be still and know that he is our
God and salvation we will always be able to draw strength from him.
Our
next examples comes from a man that fully understood the importance of letting
God be his everything and guide through out life. I am talking about David.
David has much to say about trusting in God and ask him for strength.
2 Samuel 22:1 Then
David spoke to the LORD the words of this song, on the day when the LORD had
delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. 2 And he said: "The LORD is
my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
3 The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and
the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me
from violence. 4 I will call
upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my
enemies. 5 'When the waves of
death surrounded me, The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 6 The sorrows of Sheol surrounded
me; The snares of death confronted me. 7
In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my
voice from His temple, And my cry entered His ears.
David understood who is
redeemer was and you find him praising God over and over again for what he had
done for him is his life. But David also knew that he could gain comfort and
strength from Gods word as well.
Psalm 119:27 Make me
understand the way of Your precepts; So shall I meditate on Your wondrous
works. 28 My soul melts from
heaviness; Strengthen me according to Your word. 29 Remove from me the way of
lying, And grant me Your law graciously.
30 I have chosen the way of truth; Your judgments I have laid
before me. 31 I cling
to Your testimonies; O LORD, do not put me to shame! 32 I will run the course of Your
commandments, For You shall enlarge my heart.
33 Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, And I shall
keep it to the end. 34
Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; Indeed, I shall observe it
with my whole heart. 35
Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it.
If we want to draw
strength from God we need to go to his word and read it and understand that his
word is true. So, when we start reading about all the promise God has made to
us and how he guarantees us that if we live faithfully to him and put our trust
in him we will make to that wonderful place called heaven. It will also help us
when read about those who were in far worse situations than we have ever thought
about being in yet they leaned on God and drew strength from
him and persevered that can show us that
we can do the same.
So far we have looked at
several examples from the OT now lets take a look at the NT and see it what it
says about drawing strength from God.
Sometimes our body will
develop a problem. Maybe we can’t see as well or perhaps we loose a limb. Going
through such and ordeal may cause some to loose their faith but this should not
be the case. Notice what we learn from Paul as he had to deal with an infirmity
in his own life.
2 Corinthians 12:6 For
though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the
truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to
be or hears from me. 7
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations,
a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I
be exalted above measure. 8
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart
from me. 9 And He said to me,
"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in
weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,
in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am
weak, then I am strong.
You see Paul would have
loved to have his thorn in the flesh removed. We can clearly see this in the
fact that he asked god 3 times to remove it. But Gods response was my grace is
sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness. God is teach
you and I that there will be infirmities in your life and yes he has the power
to make them go away but it necessary because no matter what your infirmity may
be God grace shouldn’t be sufficient enough for us. Knowing that we are Gods
chosen people and that we are in saved condition because of the wonderful gift
of grace has given us it should give us such comfort and strength that no
infirmity can drag us down. Instead we should our illness to grow closer to God
by gaining strength from him during these trying times.
Another thing we need to
realize is that every single Christian no matter how spiritual strong they are
will always have need to draw strength from God. Again, Paul is another great
example of this. I think everyone would agree that Paul was a dedicated and
spiritual person. But we have several examples that indicate that he struggled
with his Christianity and had to draw strength from God to go on.
Acts 18:9 Now the
Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid, but speak,
and do not keep silent; 10
"for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have
many people in this city."
To put this into context
Paul was at
Acts 27:20 Now
when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on
us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up. 21 But after long abstinence from
food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, "Men, you should have
listened to me, and not have sailed from
Again see it implied here
that Paul was beginning to doubt that he would survive until an angel came and
reassured him that he would live to see Caesar. Paul gained strength from God
during this time which probably seemed hopeless to everyone else. So you see
everyone no matter how strong or weak they are must draw strength from God.
Another important lesson we learn from Paul from his time at sea is that once
he was strengthened he shared his strength those around him being a vessel for
God. We need to keep this in mind that God can use us as a vessel to strengthen
those around us but the source of strength is always from God. So, when we see
someone hurting or struggling with something try to help them by being their
for them. The Bible tells us to bear one another’s burdens and weep with those
who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice this all related to sharing the
strength that you gained from God.
Lets just say for a
minute however that you find yourself in a place where Christians are failing
in their duty to bear your burden and you find yourself neglected well guess
what even if no one is there for you can still gain strength from God. Paul
teaches this very thing in,
2 Timothy
As you can see Paul wrote
a lot about gaining strength from God and there are many other verses that we
could go to that he has written on this topic. However for times sake I want to
share one more with you. In this next writing Paul is talking about how is
possible for some to become discouraged when they see others going through
difficult times and he will explain how we should not allow this to bring us
down but instead we should allow God to strengthen us.
Ephesians 3:13 Therefore
I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your
glory. 14 For this reason I
bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in
heaven and earth is named, 16
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with
all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height -- 19 to know the love of Christ
which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of
God. 20 Now to Him who is
able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to
the power that works in us, 21
to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever. Amen.
So lets us never ever
forget that we can make it through any hardship that this life may hold if we
remember to trust in God and to gain strength from him. Paul learned that
lesson very well that is why he was able to say with all confidence
Philippians
I hope this lesson this
morning has encouraged you in someway and has reminded you that you have a God
who loves and will never forsake and you can gain strength from him.