Inner Strength

 If you listen for it, you can hear a lot out there in our current society talking about inner strength. Phrases like "you got this" seem to abound. The message behind them is that you are stronger than you think you are. All you have to do is dig a little deeper and you'll find that you already have what you need inside of you. It's basically a message saying that you are your own master, and you don't need to rely on anyone else. You just have to focus, dig deeper, and find that strength and commitment within yourself.

That all sounds really good in our ears. After all, who doesn't want to think that we have everything we need, and we just have to look inside ourselves to find it. Then we don't have to depend on anyone else. We are sufficient for ourselves. Sure, we may need cheerleaders along the way to help us find it, and perhaps coaches or therapists to give us a little assistance. But we don't have to rely on them. We have all we need.

As you read through those two paragraphs, you'll notice that the attention and focus is on the self. So it sounds really strange to hear something like what Paul wrote to the Ephesians when he wrote, I bow my knees before the Father...that...he may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being (Ephesians 3:16-17). It sounds like we need God the Father to strengthen us with his Spirit. It sounds like we aren't the source of the strength or power. It comes from somewhere outside of us.

The reality is that Paul is hitting on something we'd rather not be the case. We simply do not have strength or inner power in ourselves. If that were the case, then why aren't we all super-disciplined people who are able to solve our problems easily? If it's inside of us, then why hasn't someone shown us the trick to unlocking all that power? Doing so would seem to eliminate a lot of the problems we see in this world.

But then, if you keep reading, you find it even stranger. What is the strength and inner power that Paul is asking that the Father would give? It's that you would know the love of God in Jesus. It's that you would be rooted in Jesus. Essentially Paul is saying that God gives us power and inner strength to be rooted in the love that God has for us in Jesus. God gives us power so that we will know how much God cares for us, and so that we will be firmly planted in God's grace toward us through Jesus, his life, death and resurrection for us.

That sounds like a strange way of looking at power and inner strength. It comes from outside of us, and it is utilized by God to grow us in knowing what we mean to God and what God has done for us in Jesus. And yet, that is where strength and power is found. When we know that we are God's, that God has made us His own in Jesus, we have the strength of knowing who we are. We have the inner power to know that God has a sacrificial care for us that He has shown in Jesus. 

God gives us the power and inner strength to know Him, to know Jesus, and to know what God has done to give us an identity and make us His own people. That identity is then a source of strength as we face the world in which we live. That gives us strength when hard times happen. It keeps us grounded in our identity in Jesus when good comes our way. When the unexpected comes up, we have the security and strength of knowing that we have our grounding in the God who knows all things and is working for our good in them all. That is inner strength worth having.