“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” - Philippians 4:13
It is perhaps one of the most inspiring verses we find in the Bible. The writer is none other than Apostle Paul who even as He had been called of God to carry the Gospel to the Gentiles faced all manner of hardships and set backs.
Paul narrates in 2 Cor 24- 26, “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers..” In spite of all Paul kept moving. He never lost trail and went on to build many churches in areas where his ministry took him.
Paul’s strength was based on the knowledge that, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:28). God enabled Paul accomplish his tasks by providing him resources, protecting him when as needed, and leading him on to his destiny. For instance one time while being pursued, “his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall” (Acts 9:25).
So, today, let’s take comfort that with faith in Christ we “can do all things.” God enables us through a myriad ways. He leads. He guides. He protects. Our job is simple: never to lose faith.
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, because of the faith I have in Christ, I rise today, confident that there is no task beyond me, because I do all things in Christ Jesus!
Related upcoming events
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
