Flexing their muscles is something little boys love to do. I remember when my boys were little, and they wanted to show me their muscles. They would insist that I touch them to see how strong they were. Now that I am older, I flex, but there is more hanging below my bicep than there is reaching upward.
As we get older, we learn that strength is replaced with wisdom and intelligence. We figure out faster and better ways to accomplish things. We quickly understand brainpower.
One area of brainpower is realizing that our major accomplishments in life are not by our own strength. We need the strength that God alone can provide to achieve things that are important in life. God has promised us His strength, but too often we forget about His provision until we fail on our own. Philippians 4:13 reminds us that we can do all things through Christ. It is by Him we are strengthened not by our own power.
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Paul is teaching us that we don’t have to sink under the trials that we face. We don’t have to worry about the trials and temptations of this world that are to come, because Jesus will be there at every turn. He will make a way to escape the temptations. He is able and will provide all that we need to live a successful Christian life.
The key is to always put our confidence in Him and not in ourselves. There is a danger of getting complacent and feeling confident in our own strength. As we experience victories it is very easy to think we’re doing ok in this fight. Pride begins to swell up within us before long we are handling things on our own. In I Corinthians 10:12 we are warned about fighting this battle in our own strength. Pride always leads to destruction because it is glorifying self and not God. When we feel this kind of confidence we are in danger. We are safest when we feel weak and in need of divine help and strength. That is when God pours out His strength on us because it is then when He gets the glory.
I Corinthians 10:12 “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
We can have the courage to face anything this world throws against us because God has promised that He will not fail us. He will go with us every step of the way. He will never forsake us. When our faith is in Him, we can be assured that He will win. There is nothing anyone can do to us, that does not first pass by God.
Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
As we rest in Him through each trial, our spiritual muscles will grow. This growth will give us an inward peace that settles our souls. This peace is why Paul could sit in a prison and sing praises to God after being beaten unjustly. It is this inner confidence in God that gave him the strength to stay in the prison when God caused an earthquake to open the doors where they could go free. It is this muscle of faith that convinced the soldier that they were real men of the one true God. When Paul’s muscle of faith was exercised men were saved.
Act 16:25-31 “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
What would have happened if Paul and Silas had not been strengthening their spiritual muscles before they were thrown in jail? Their physical strength would have been weak. They wouldn’t have anything to “flex,” so to speak, and men would have died without Jesus. The soldier would have taken his own life and his family would not have heard about Jesus.
Act 16:32-34 “And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”
Just like Paul, we need to be strengthening our spiritual muscles. We have no idea what tomorrow holds for us. It may be that we will get an opportunity to flex and show God’s power through us. If there has not been preparation ahead of time, there will be nothing to flex. Who needs to see God’s strength in you? Who’s eternity depends on God working through you?
