“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” (Ephesians. 6:10-11)
The short 6 chapter letter of Ephesians finishes with a famous passage on the armour of God. This exhortation reminds us that this thing called life is not some light and fluffy walk through the park that we are involved in. This is war! Anyone going through a deep valley, whether it be a sickness, a death, a loss of a job, a betrayal or just your own daily battle against sin, can identify with the writer to Ephesians when he says that we are in a battle and that we need to get strong.
But in all this, it is tempting to think that the solution to finding strength is to beat your chest and dig deep within yourself by picking up fighting talk like “just get your act together! Stand on your feet! What’s wrong with you?” But that’s not the message of grace.
The gospel comes to us and declares, “Be strong in the Lord.”
A more accurate translation of this verse is “Be strengthened in the Lord and in the power of his might.” If you listened in your high school English classes you’ll know that we’re looking at a passive imperative in this verse. It’s easy to obey an active imperative like: “Be quiet”. But “be strengthened”? How do you obey an imperative that’s passive? Here are three daily habits that can be helpful in strengthening yourself in the Lord:
1.Be still and know that I am God
It’s a real tonic to stumble on a command like this, particularly when you’re going through a tough patch. A different version puts it this way: ‘relax, cease striving’. In other words, ‘enough, stop’.
You can’t skip over those things, you need to let them pour into your inner being. How do we go the long journey? How did the biblical heroes of Moses, David and Paul do it? Did God just find some very strong people? No He didn’t! He found some people who discovered how to draw down the strength of God into their little lives.
- Shake off the old
Isaiah declared, “Awake, awake, clothe yourselves in your strength O Zion. Clothe yourselves in your beautiful garments. Shake yourself from the dust. Rise up. Loose yourself from the chains around your neck” (Isaiah. 52:1-2). He was calling God’s people to recognise who they were. ‘Come on,’ he was urging. ‘God has called you. You’re his people. Don’t live in the dust; don’t live in chains. Shake them off.’
- Put on your new identity
The author of this letter is not writing to sinners, but to God’s people whom the New Testament describes as saints. It’s very important for us to understand that God calls us saints. Too often I am tempted to appeal to the fact that I feel that I’m primarily a sinner. The Lord disagrees. True, we were once far off, living in darkness, godlessness and hopelessness, but now we’ve been brought near to God and He’s made us into new creations. ‘New creation’ is your new identity. You used to be darkness. Now you’re light in the Lord! That’s who you are! Allow the Word of God to remind you of who and whose you are daily and strength will come.
