Saturday February 22, 2020
I took a good look at myself in the mirror the other day. Things that used to be tight are wiggly. Things that used to define, now line. Gravity pulls at my face and other unmentionables and I suddenly felt old.
I follow a lady on Instagram who is, I think 70+ years old. She was on a lot of medication and was overweight. In a couple of years she transformed herself; lowered her BMI, increased her lean muscle mass and was able to go off most of her medication by weight training and being careful with her diet. Inspirational.
I know that as I age I will naturally lose muscle mass. It’s a proven scientific fact and the drama is being played out in my life, on my body in real time. Oiy. The best way to fight back is by doing weight-bearing exercises.
It develops strength.
Using weights causes tiny tears in the muscle that when healed makes the muscle stronger. Weird right? Tears. Resistance and hardship. Greater strength.
In read Psalm 18:1 today. It says “I love you, O Lord, my strength.” David wrote Psalm 18 after the Lord had saved him from the hand of Saul.
Right away I notice that David doesn’t take credit for being clever and quick, for outrunning that nasty king. Instead he sounds so relieved and grateful, absolutely sure that it was the Lord’s strength not his own that provided an escape.
Isn’t it interesting that the Lord shows off his divine, supernatural power right in the middle of the most dire human experience. Circumstances would have felt desperate for David, hunted down, his life in peril every moment…he might have felt at the end of himself. Like I do sometimes.
Instead he relies on a strength that he doesn’t own. Rather than battle within the limitations of his humanity, he calls on the Lord God Almighty. O Lord, my strength he says.
I am so thankful I don’t need to rely on my own strength.
I’m too frail for the spiritual warfare that comes against me. I quit too easily when things get hard. I wimp out when it might hurt too much.
But the Lord loves me too lavishly to let my human nature win so he empowers me with himself, his strength, to fight back and take captive all the fleshly things that stand in defiance against him.
I love that the Lord IS my strength. He doesn’t just give it to me, he is it. When I make it through a rough day, or a difficult period of life, through a hardship; it’s Jesus. In his deep love for me he pours his strength into my life so I can get up and carry on, push past every difficult circumstance.
Jesus be my strength. When I feel weak fill me with your presence so I can keep going. Like David I declare that I love you Lord! I am so thankful that you don’t despise my weakness, instead you use it as a way of showcasing your great and abiding strength in my life.
reflect…
- Can you honestly say “I love you Lord, my strength”?
- How have you been relying on your own strength rather than turning to the Lord?
- What will it take to go from weakness to strength today?