Got Strength?
“Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.” Psalm 105:4
“I will give you strength to do what I’ve called you to do,” the Spirit of God essentially spoke to my heart one morning. “I will not give you strength for what I’ve not called you to do. Use the strength wisely,” He admonished me. I knew immediately what He meant. And, for the umpteenth time, I believed the message He had given me was for others as well.
People ask me periodically how I lead a ministry as an evangelist and an author dedicated 24-7 to the Lord and ministry with a big group of special needs and senior rescued dogs in my ministry’s care, doing everything from writing, publishing, and streets ministry and ministering to people one on one to administrative, bookkeeping as best I can keep up, and caring for so many dogs with special needs 24-7 on a barebones budget with virtually no help, and the answer is simple. The Lord. His strength. But He has taught me an incredibly precious lesson along the way. His strength is to be used for His will for His purpose for His glory. Because I have a huge heart and lots of energy, I tend to want to help everyone and everything in every situation and am constantly tempted to take on more and to take detours, go down the bi-ways when I need to stay on His highway, go one way when God is leading me the other way, say yes when I need to say no, and get distracted when I desperately need to say focused on Him and His will.
What was God telling me about strength? Picture a car with a full gas tank. You, the driver, know precisely your intended destination. Only trouble is you decide to go off the beaten path, so to speak, driving to all sorts of places that are clearly not on the best, most direct and efficient route to the destination you had intended. What happens? You either run out of gas entirely and never get to your destination, or you arrive at your destination on a very low if not empty gas tank, unable to do once you’re there what you had planned. God was impressing upon me that He gives me a certain amount of strength daily to be used FOR HIM rather than for my own plans and purposes. If I use the strength He gives me for my own pleasures, for my own sins, and/or even for my own “good ideas” that are in fact well intended but my own ideas rather than His will, guess what. You guessed it. I don’t have the strength to fulfill His will, or I don’t have the strength to fulfill His will with a glad and thankful heart, a positive attitude, and the heartfelt desire with His love inside me and energy remaining to bring glory to His name!
Is the Spirit of God speaking to your heart through this message? Please listen to Him if this message is for you.