As I was
complaining to God this morning about miserable feelings inside me, I first was
drawn to consider why “good Christians” get so messed up, and also why God must
continuously expose our failures to be good. As long as we are stuck in that
mindset where we must do good for God, we either wear ourselves out relying on
our own strength to do good things, or we give up and hide (either physically
or emotionally).
Meditating on
what God was showing me brought me to an AHA!!!-moment. There is not one part
of the whole armor of God given to the church that relates to good works! Taking
our stand in the whole armor of God is the exact opposite to good Christians
trying to be strong for Jesus.
I will not go
through the whole passage right now, though I have included it here for your
convenience.[1]
I want to present the very first line for you to consider today.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.[2]
When the
church is told to “be strong,” it is “in the Lord and in the strength of his
might.” The only way we can do this is to accept the Beatitudinal
transformation[3]
that accepts it has zero strength to add to the picture. God is not asking us
to add our strength to his so we can make it through. He is not asking his
children to be his allies so that he has enough strength to destroy the rulers,
authorities, cosmic powers, present darkness, and spiritual forces of evil in
the heavenly places.[4] He
is calling us through the Beatitudinal Valley where we fully acknowledge our
poverty of spirit, mourn the sinfulness and sarkiness[5] within
us that keeps us from being like Jesus, meekly accept and acknowledge that we
cannot do anything to fix what is wrong with us, and so we do the only thing we
can do, which is to hunger and thirst for what we do not have, that
righteousness that is given to us in Jesus Christ.
When we come
to God in poverty, and weakness, and emptiness, and brokenness, and contrition
of heart, we can now “be strong in the
Lord” because we have stopped trying to be strong in ourselves. When we
turn to “the strength of his might,”
we stop trying to have any strength in ourselves. We come in complete
emptiness, and brokenness, and failure, repenting of our sinful sarkiness, and
find strength because his fullness fills our emptiness.
When Paul
said that, “For when I am weak, then I am
strong,”[6]it
was because God had told him, “My grace
is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”[7]We
do not see the perfection of God’s power in our strength, in depending on
ourselves. We see the perfection of power in our weakness, when we are like
little children surrendering to the power of God, and trusting in him to get us
through this life.
This is why
Paul would say, “Therefore I will boast
all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon
me.”[8]
We see the power of God resting on us, working in us, accomplishing all that
the Father works to do, when we come in weakness to avail ourselves of his strength.
We are not to boast at all in any “strong” things we do for God. We boast in
weakness that God graciously uses to bring us to know his strength in place of
our own.
The call of
the Christian life is for weak people to experience strength “in the Lord.” We are not to stand up
and be strong for him, but to find our strength in him. We can only be a strong
church when “the strength of his might”
fills weak people. As long as we are trying to be the strong Christians who do
everything right for God, we are missing the gospel, and utterly failing to be
strong.
This “trying
to be strong” is why we always must hide parts of ourselves that are not good,
and hide weaknesses we do not want anyone to see. When we are “doing well” we
share about how well we are doing. When we fail to be strong in ourselves, we
get pouty and pull back into the shadows to minimize exposure.
We must
accept this, that everything to do with being strong as a Christian is about
weak people coming to God for strength. It is about weak churches coming to the
Lord, and to his might, for his strength to do in us what we know we cannot do.
There is never any strength whatsoever in us constantly trying to show we are
good. God knows our hearts, so we are wasting everyone’s time trying to
perform.
What we are
to do is BE. We BE strong by resting, not by trying. We BE strong by
surrendering, and giving in, and submitting, and humbling ourselves. We come as
broken people into “the Lord,” and
into “the strength of his might,” and
we find that his strength is made perfect in our weakness.
As this
applies to myself as a pastor, I am not waiting for people to be “good.” I am
urging us all to be weak in the way of a child who comes running to God as
Father because, “Lord, to whom shall we
go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to
know, that you are the Holy One of God.”[9]
That’s it!
Where else can we go? Sark is bankrupt (blessed are the poor in spirit who
admit this). The flesh is deceived. Self-protection will continue to destroy us
as long as we use it. We have only one place to go: to “the Lord and… the strength of his might.”
As this
applies to every believer in Jesus Christ, consider how crying out to God in weakness
will give us and our churches far more than anything we could accomplish by
trying to be the strong church members who get everything done, or who go into
hiding when we aren’t doing so well.
Don’t you
find it interesting that, one of the “strongest” Christians we know, the
apostle Paul, also talked so incessantly about prayer? That is because his
strength was in the Lord, and so he stayed in constant communication and
fellowship with his source of strength. Let us do the same.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on
the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of
the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in
the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having
fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of
righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness
given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of
faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17
and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the
saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth
boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador
in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6)
[2]
Ephesians 6:10
[3]
Referring to the Beatitudes as breathed-out by God in Matthew 5:1-12.
[4]
Ephesians 6:12
[5]
Just a reminder that I use “sark,” a transliteration of the Greek word for “flesh,”
and “sarky” in place of “fleshly,” and “sarkiness” in place of “fleshliness”. The
flesh, or the sark, is that part of ourselves that is programmed to live
independent of God. Paul describes this in great detail in Romans 7, followed
with the wonderful contrast with life in the Spirit in Romans 8.
[6]
II Corinthians 12:10
[7]
II Corinthians 12:9
[8]
II Corinthians 12:9
[9]
John 6:68-69
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