God Strengthens

Opening Prayer: Dear Father God, we thank You for Your kindness and Your mercy. We come together this day as sheep in Your fold. Look upon us with Your love and Your forgiveness. By Your grace we approach Your Throne to ask You to forgive us our many sins. Holy Christ, we are grateful for Your Presence in our midst. We love You and we need You. Minister to us now by Your Holy Spirit we pray. Amen.

Devotion: Text:

"At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." 2 Timothy 4: 16-17

Often, we feel deserted and betrayed by others.

Paul certainly felt this way. He is writing this letter to Timothy, a beloved student. From a dark, damp, cold Roman prison cell, Paul probably awaits imminent execution. During the trial he had no one to help him defend himself before the Emperor. The charge, the verdict, and the sentence were unjust. He was looking at having to pay with his head for trying to help folks avoid hell! And he was just being obedient to what the Lord had called him to do! Think about it... after all Paul had done for so many people...and how faithfully he had served Jesus for all those years! Now he was facing the prospects of execution for it. If anyone ever had a reason to get mad at God, Paul did.

Paul’s Reaction

BUT, instead of getting mad at God, he leaned more heavily upon Him. And what did the Lord do? Commute the death sentence? Destroy the Emperor? Confuse Paul's accusers? Help Paul escape from prison? No. What DID the Lord do? He stood with Paul, because Paul kept his heart open to Jesus. Paul loved Jesus. And he never stopped loving and continued to stand for Jesus, no matter what. It was a great encouragement to Paul for him to know the King of kings stood beside him as he faced the whim of the Emperor of Rome!

God’s Response

And what else did the Lord do? He strengthened Paul! The God of the universe not only kept Paul company through his trial, He also gave him the possession of strength inside, of personal fortitude, of supernatural calm in the storm! Oh! How often this is unlike our response to the troubles of life! We're subject to get upset with God and everyone around us if things get too bad. But, like Paul, when we lean on Jesus in the storm, when we call on Him, instead of blame Him, He always comforts us with the reassurance of His presence and with the strength to keep our peace and joy in the thick of it all.

Psalm 28:7 NIV

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

This is not theory or cold theology. This is not fables and dreams. The experience of His strength imparted to us is real and vital and available to us all, all the time, by the presence of His Holy Spirit in our life!

2 Corinthians 12:8–10 NASB 2020

Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

May we be evermore encouraged to seek the Lord, not run from Him. May we not blame God in our trials and get bitter toward Him. Oh, if we could talk to Paul now, I'm sure he would say it was worth it all. Our purpose is to stand for the mission of sharing him with others. He went to the extreme by becoming one of us, living and understanding our struggles, and suffering and dying so that we could have a relationship with him. Embrace this. Embrace the trials. God is with you and will help you shine his light in the darkest valley.

Closing Prayer: Our Father in Heaven, You know our struggles, our disappointments, our aches and pains. In the face of our weaknesses, let us live in the power of Your Holy Spirit within us. Let us walk with You and talk with You. Grant that we trust You and obey You. And, as we call on You to strengthen us, please grant that we be agents of Your encouragement and care to our neighbors and friends who live with us in this home. Help us to share with others right here in this facility the love and the forgiveness You so generously pour upon us. This we pray in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen. © Copyright 2014, Christian Concourse Ministries, Inc., 1543 Norcova Ave., Norfolk, VA 23502 - [phone] - www.christianconcourse.org