No. 9

Strength

Over the past few months I’ve been running quite some distance, and even managed to pop a few half marathon distances under my belt! I’ll admit, I’m pretty chuffed with that! If you’d have asked me a few years ago about running that sort of distance, I would have quickly dismissed the idea. Running 5km was plenty - pushing myself to run double, triple or more than quadruple that distance seemed like a gruelling endeavour that I had no interest in putting myself through! Oh how times have changed! Slowly and surely, as I’ve stuck at it, I’ve built up the endurance so that I know that running those long distances, while it still feels hard, is well within reach.

So why am I telling you about my running endeavours? Well, the Lord has taught me a lot through running. For one, it’s helped show me that I can do hard things! Running has also taught me a lot about endurance, something I shared about in a previous post (No.6). Something else I’ve learnt along the way is the importance of strength. If you want to run well, prevent injury and improve your speed, power and endurance you need to build strength. I quickly learnt this when I started to increase my weekly running mileage and noticed a ‘little niggle’ in my knee. The last thing anyone wants is an injury, so I took notice. I’d been focusing on clocking up the miles, but I hadn’t been focusing so much on strength. The slight pain in my knee alerted me to an area of weakness that I needed to do something about. Thankfully, I quickly realised that this issue was easy to resolve by dialling down my weekly mileage a little and introducing some strength training. But again, just like endurance, strength isn’t built overnight. It takes time, it takes effort and it takes consistency. It’s something I’m still working on, and need to continue working on as long as I run, but I’m really noticing the difference. As my runs get longer and longer, I have the strength to keep going. I have the strength to endure the distance.

The same goes for us as we run the (spiritual) race the Lord has set before us. We need to strengthen ourselves in Him so that we can run with endurance.

“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews vs 1-2

The Lord so often uses these practical things to speak to me about spiritual things. So while I’ve been strengthening myself physically, I’ve been feeling stirred to strengthen myself in Him and His Word. I know I need it. I recognise my weakness, my human fragility and my need for Him. I need to strengthen myself on the truth of what His Word says, to recall His goodness, to feast upon his faithfulness and to delight in Him.

David was definitely one who continually strengthened himself in the Lord - that’s evident throughout the Psalms. But I’ve also been pondering the story of David in 1 Samuel 30. David had just arrived at the town of Ziklag with his 600 men to find that it had been set on fire. Moreover, all the inhabitants had been taken captive - including two of David’s wives. Suffice to say, the men were pretty distressed when they arrived to see the town had been set on fire and that their wives and children had been captured. They wept until they had no strength left! They even considered turning on David and stoning him in their distress. But David’s response is profound - he strengthened himself in the Lord. In the midst of devastation, loss, trail and challenge when even his own men wanted to stone him, David didn’t succumb to bitterness or anger and neither did he try run away or give up. Instead, he ran to the Lord His God for strength. Then David, with the 400 men who had strength, continued on. They defeated the Amalekites and recovered ALL that had been taken - wives, children and everything else. Not one thing was missing! But they didn’t just get back what they’d lost, they returned with plunder. They returned with the spoils of war!

We all face trials and challenges of various shapes and sizes, but the Lord is calling us to be those that strengthen ourselves in Him so that we might overcome, stand firm and run with endurance… and that, like David, we might plunder the enemies camp and recover all!

To rise as Esthers and take our stand we need also to be strengthened in Him. As biblical truth becomes more and more contested, as different agendas try to push their twisted ideologies, as we hear of wars and rumours of wars - we need strength to stand firm, to speak up and hold fast to the truth.

As we saturate ourselves in the truth of His Word, as we remember who He is and as we wait upon Him, strength rises. It’s not a strength that comes from our own ability… David probably felt pretty weak when he arrived in Ziklag, but He knew to run to the Lord to find strength. As Paul says “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” Isaiah 40:31

So may we be those who find strength in the Lord and may we be those who find strength in His Word, day after day after day. May be those that run to Him, so that we can be those that run with strength and endurance the race He has set before us.

Much Love,

Katie