If you faint in the day of adversity your strength is small.

The Message version

If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place.

This verse is very powerful to me, because I can think back on many instances where a person has gone through a huge crisis of some sort. Some have handled it with dignity while others have completely fallen apart and never fully recovered.

Adversity comes in many forms, and sometimes what we think might be a terrible thing might turn out to be something we can look back on and see how God wanted us to run to Him and let Him handle it in His chosen way.

God has dealt with me about walking in His Strength each day instead of trying to do everything in my own strength. I have found that trying to fit everything into one day that I feel God wants me to do is totally impossible without His supernatural help and guidance; but when I tell Him first thing each morning that I will never be able to get everything accomplished without His help, He somehow supernaturally gives me the strength I need to do it.

When you are walking in His will for your life, you will find that He tells you to do things that you will never be able to accomplish in your own strength. God purposely places things in your life in order to help you to grow stronger and tougher as a Christian.

He even told some of the great men and women of the Bible to do some things that were downright hard. If they hadn’t trusted in a mighty way they would have probably been devoured by Satan.

God wants you to find out about His Character. Once you know even a few truths about Him, you will realize that He always has your best interest at heart and wants the absolute best for your life. He can see exactly how everything will work out, and wants you to rely on His sight and strength to work through you to accomplish what He desires.

If He tells you to do something hard, it is because He sees great potential in you and wants to develop it and use you in a mighty way for His Kingdom.

God sometimes puts you in a tough situation to teach you to lean on Him with everything in you. The next time things look impossible, claim Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

You will be amazed at how much more you can accomplish with God’s supernatural help. Try it and be amazed!

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1. Is God Really Your Strength?
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27. For God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame.

28. And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are,

29. So that no mortal man should [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God.

OH if we could only see things from God’s perspective. We certainly would trust Him much more than we do when He tells us to do something that seems hard.

He can see everything about your life – the most strength you are capable of having, the most endurance you can stand under pressure, how far your limits will reach in any given situation, and how much stamina you can have before you can’t take it anymore.

A good word picture would be a “stress test” (a medical test) that tells you the condition of your heart. You basically walk on an electronic treadmill exercise machine. The whole point is to try to keep up with the machine as it makes you walk faster and faster, walk uphill, then walk fast and uphill at the same time; you are hooked up to heart monitors the whole time to see how your heart is responding. If you can endure to the end, you definitely have a healthy heart.

God wants you to use His strength, ability and power to do what He has called you to do. In fact, He does not want you to be able to accomplish it on your own. He will tell you to do things you are not capable of doing so He can receive all the glory in what you are able to accomplish.

In the Bible, God consistently told people to do things they were totally incapable of doing on their own. They felt overwhelmed even thinking about how they would accomplish such huge undertakings. But God knew exactly what they could be capable of doing with HIS power and HIS strength added to their own.

He chose ordinary people like you and me who didn’t think of themselves as special in any way. They just had a heart that wanted to know and obey God, and He chose to use them in great and marvelous ways.

Vs. 25 says “…the foolish thing [that has its source in] God is wiser than men, and the weak thing [that springs] from God is stronger than men.

So how many times do we miss out on God’s way because we try to put Him in a box and expect Him to act in a way that is already familiar? What if He wants to do things in a new way? Will you be open to listen and obey?

Many of the Israelites missed Jesus because they were expecting a Savior in the form of a leader who would go to battle against their surrounding enemies and defeat them. God had worked in that way numerous times before, but this time He had in mind a much better and different plan.

Will you open your mind and heart to hearing and obeying God even if He chooses to do things in a way that you have never imagined? Your life will definitely not be boring.

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1. Jesus Died on the Cross to Make Things New Again – Video
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I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.

Below are the Greek meanings of the key words in the verse above:

can do – to have or exercise force, literally or figuratively

all things – all, any, every, the whole

through – primary preposition denoting a fixed position in place, time or state; implies instrumentality; a relation of rest

strengtheneth – to empower, enable, increase in strength, to make strong

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I have probably read this verse thousands of times during my life, but when I studied the Greek meaning of these words I realized that whatever God tells me to do He will give me the power, wisdom and knowledge, plus He will give me an abundance of strength to walk in victory to carry it out.

The hard part about all this is that even though God has promised this strength, I still have to claim it and walk in it supernaturally on a daily basis.

The word “supernatural” means that you still work hard and probably will have the same amount of work to accomplish, but somehow when God is in control you are able to get everything accomplished without being totally overwhelmed and experiencing burn-out from frustration and exhaustion.

God opened two doors for me at one point and I was absolutely sure that I needed to walk through them both and step out on faith. These two doors represented different jobs that I was to do each day. They were both jobs that were intense and time-consuming, but it felt awesome to go to sleep at night knowing that I was in the center of God’s Will because I had been obedient to what He told me to do.

I started well, and things were great as long as I had no other outside interruptions (something tearing up, someone needing help, anything that might happen unexpectedly) to take up my time. But life is definitely full of interruptions, and soon they seemed to be taking over and started to rob me of my productiveness.

The more this happened, the more I started to panic about not being able to get everything done. Then I started to try harder and harder, but got less and less accomplished. All this time I was crying out to God that I just could not do everything He had called me to do.

One day I was begging Him to help me just as I had done for the previous two months. I was telling Him that there was absolutely no way I could do both of these jobs. I felt like an utter and complete failure even though I was trying hard to be a success.

He brought Philippians 4:13 to mind and told me that I was trying to do everything in my own power instead of depending on and walking in His Strength each day. He said the only way I would be able to accomplish everything was to let Him strengthen me in a supernatural way.  I didn’t hear these words audibly, but I heard them in my mind and spirit in an overwhelming way.

This revelation made a huge difference in my life that I have never forgotten.

God is supernatural in every way. He would have to be to create the world and everything in it by saying the Word and watching it happen. He works on a completely different level than you or I and if we are to accomplish what He desires, we must do it His Way.

In order to do the work of a supernatural God, you must let Him use you in a supernatural way.

I should have never tried to accomplish God’s plans with my own power, and I definitely found out it isn’t possible. I hope I will be much smarter the next time.

Why don’t you give God complete control and see how much more you can accomplish when you do the work totally in His Power?

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1. Is God Really Your Strength?

I have never had the desire to go “rock-climbing” before, but I found myself facing the challenge of a rock wall and decided that I might as well give it a try. I do walk each morning but definitely don’t consider myself in top physical shape, so I thought I would probably only be able to climb 5 or 6 feet at the most.

I knew there was no real danger of getting hurt because the climbing gear that had been fitted to me was attached to a rope and pulley that would let me down safely if I lost my footing.

The first time I tried I got up maybe 8 – 10 feet before my arms started to give out. I then was told that if you use your legs to take the brunt of the weight, you will be able to last much longer than trying to use your arms.

I rested a few minutes and decided I would give it one more try in a different place on the wall. Armed with my new found knowledge about letting my legs be my main strength and just taking it slow and easy and thinking about where I needed to go next, I was ready for one more chance.

I was going pretty well for about the first 10 feet up, and then the climbing holds started getting a little farther apart. I had to really think about how I would make my moves. I had lots of encouragement on the ground from people who had already gone up and knew the best path. They were telling me to go right or left, but still when you are several feet up all those directions are much easier given than actually accomplished.

Through some careful placement of my hands and feet, I managed to get up about 20-25 feet high. Then just as I thought I would make it to the top, the next rung up was a good 8-10 inches above the farthest I could reach with my hand while standing on tiptoes.

I am only around 5 feet tall, so the higher I climbed, the farther apart the climbing holds were. I had already been told that as I stood on tip-toe I should gain some momentum by making a lunge for the next rung; then when my hand was secure on the climbing hold I should quickly find a place for my foot to rest.

That is definitely much easier said than done, and it all had to happen in a split second. By this time my legs and arms were tired and shaking a bit, so I didn’t have a lot of strength left to make the lunge up and get one of my legs up at the same time to hold me up

I wish now that I had given it all I had and tried the lunge up even if I missed the rung and came falling down. I think I must have started to think about how tired I was, plus I was convinced it was impossible for me to be able to lunge upward that many inches.  I finally rappelled down the side of the wall.

Don’t get me wrong; I am really proud of being able to accomplish the first 20-25 feet, because that is 3 times higher than I thought I would ever be able to achieve. It was also my first time even attempting something of that magnitude.

God has been dealing with me mightily about a complete and utter surrender to Him and giving Him complete control over what He desires to do with my life.  I started to think about the fact that the first few feet were not easy by any means, but they were manageable as long as I carefully calculated how to place my hands and feet. I could even say that I had been successful by my own physical abilities and strengths up until this point.

But when the extreme challenge came, I was already physically tired and it didn’t take much to convince me that reaching the next rung was impossible.

Psalm 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

God has impressed upon me that if I really believe that the Lord is the Strength of my life, I will be able to accomplish things that are totally out of my reach because I will have his Supernatural Strength to help me lunge to the next climbing hold, no matter how high it is. My springboard will be the power of God Himself to undergird me to take me to the next level.

I truly don’t know if I could have made it to the next climbing hold on the rock wall, but in my everyday walk with God I can reach into the unknown knowing that He is with me every step of the way and will give me the supernatural strength to do whatever He wants me to do. I just have to be bold enough to trust that He is leading me down the path that is best for me.

As humans, we tend to want to stay where we can be safe and comfortable, but God has so many great things in store for the Christian who will commit to Him and surrender fully.

Will you join me in surrendering your own plans and dreams to God? I feel sure we won’t regret it.

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–Jentzen Franklin–

There are people in the Bible who were what we would think of as just an ordinary person if we had known them at the time. If we had been their next door neighbor, we probably would have thought of them as a person just like us who struggled with problems and issues that were sometimes overwhelming.

Yet God looked at them and knew He would be able to work through them to do some awesome and supernatural things. He gave them a vision or told them a particular thing and they had to decide whether they would believe it and expect it to come to pass or if they would let the passage of time dim the vision enough that it would be forgotten and die.

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he was threshing wheat for food in a hidden place so the Midianites would not come and take it away. The Israelites had disobeyed God repeatedly and had been delivered into the hands of the Midianites for seven years. They had pretty much impoverished the children of Israel and they were greatly discouraged to the point that they were crying out to God to save them.

Hardly any human person would have been able to look at Gideon and see that he would have the potential to become a mighty and courageous warrior who would lead the fight for freedom from their oppression. Yet God saw what he was capable of doing with HIS supernatural strength and ability. God chose Gideon, but he had to make the choice of whether he would step out on faith or stay hidden in the winepress where the angel of the Lord had found him.

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Being sold out to God is not for the fainthearted. You don’t always have to have superhuman physical strength, but you do need a supernatural touch from God and have HIS ability working in you to accomplish what He desires.

God can see so much more in you than you will ever be able to see in yourself.  He knows what you can accomplish, so don’t limit Him by telling yourself you will never be able to accomplish the “impossible” looking thing He has called you to do. He already knows you can do it with HIS strength and ability.

Make the choice to go with God. One thing I can promise you is that your life will never be boring and mundane again because you don’t feel you have a purpose.

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It would be so wonderful if every Christian could grasp the concept of this picture.

Jesus died on the cross for our sin and returned to the Father so He could be our intercessor.  Then the Holy Spirit was sent to inhabit the life of every Christian so that He could lead and guide us in the right direction.

God has given us all gifts that He wants us to use for His Glory, but it is up to each one to walk in obedience to Him. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and God intended it that way. He never wants us to think that our spiritual gift pales in comparison to the one of someone else.

Together we as Christians make up the Body of Christ, and we are the ones God has chosen to carry forth His Work.

You are very important to God, and no other person can fill your shoes. Someone else might can do the job you have been called to do, but they will never be able to do it exactly like you. God is counting on you to be obedient and do your part in carrying forth His Work.

Be a true part of the Body of Christ by letting God use you in whatever way He chooses. It is much better to do a small thing that is completely in His Will than to accomplish a huge thing that He never told you to do, even if you feel you are a success in the eyes of man.

Choose instead to be a success in the eyes of God.

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living – practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

I have been thinking about this verse for several weeks now. If I really believe that God is my light, salvation, and strength, then why do I live in a state of powerlessness some of the time as far as my Christian walk is concerned? Why do the majority of Christians seem to do this?

The words light and salvation are pretty much self-explanatory, but the word strength means a fortified place, fortress, rock, or defense.

If God is my strength, then He is the rock I can stand on and be surefooted in times of trouble; He is my fortress against attacks of the enemy against me; He is my strong defender who will fight victorious battles for me.

When I think of a fortified place, I think of a castle with extremely thick walls that is set on top of a hill where the enemy can be seen approaching from a long distance; the castle would be surrounded by a deep and wide moat that was filled with hungry crocodiles, along with all kinds of snares and traps that had been set for anyone trying to approach silently.

God does much more than this for His Children, but in order to live a life that He is pleased with, you must have faith. That requires making sure you live in obedience to Him regardless of what you see in the circumstances that surround you.

If the Lord is our fortified place, why should we be afraid of circumstances that surround us? God wants us to look to Him with tunnel vision and keep our eyes glued to Him.

There may be several different parts to this original post, because God is still dealing with me about walking in this truth. I don’t want my life to be powerless any longer. I want God to be able to use me mightily in His Kingdom Work.

I hope you want the same. Let’s step out on faith together and see what God has in store!

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living - Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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God has made you in an awesome and marvelous way and you have character traits, strengths, and abilities that are unique only to you. There is nobody in all the world exactly like you.

Why is it then, that so many times we never separate ourselves from the crowd; we don’t think of ourselves as unique; we don’t think out of the box; we don’t get excited about change when we know that it is for the best; the list goes on and on.

Decide today that you will let God mold you into the person He has always wanted you to be. You are a unique being that God created for His Glory.

I can promise that you will have to get out of your comfort zone, but you will never be bored or feel that you live a mundane life again. God will take what you offer and do mighty things through your life. You are precious to Him and He wants to take your abilities and use them for His Glory.

Check out my other sites:

Handbook for Victorious Christian Living - Practical ways to learn to live a victorious Christian life

Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living

Power of the Living Word

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