What Strength Looks Like on the Hard Days

“I am not strong enough to do this.” Words that spilled over from my heart that was flooded with tears.   Words I expressed with absolute sincerity to God in a moment of weakness. 

I had lessons to learn about this thing called Strength. The dictionary describes it as having the ability to have or exert great bodily or muscular power, the act of being physically vigorous or robust.

We pray for strength. Sometimes, we even beg God for it.  It is promised to us as His people in His word. 

God himself promises to be our strength. Psalms 46:1-3 (ESV) says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”

In 2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV), Paul tells us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Paul suffered many things that brought him to the end of his strength so he would experience the strength of God. 

So what does strength look like in the reality of our day to day? What does it feel like on the painful and pressing days that seem to stretch endlessly in front of us?

I can’t speak for you but sometimes I associate strength with moving all the hard things out of my way. Moving the mountains to where I don’t see them hovering over me anymore.

I envision strength to be that inner fortitude that helps me achieve my wildest dreams and bolster all the good things I have planned for myself. 

I associate strength marching hand in hand with endurance, which helps me cross the finish line of my goals with colors flying. 

But sometimes, strength for our fields doesn’t look like any of those things. And honestly, on the hard days, I sometimes need help recognizing it. 

Strength sometimes is just the ability to get out of bed when you only want to pull the covers over your head and hide. 

It is the momentum to hold your head up and smile even when your heart breaks. 

It is what moves your hands to turn on the praise music when all you want to do is cry and wallow in what feels like defeat. 

Strength bends your knees to pray again even after you have prayed a hundred times or more and you still don’t see an answer. 

Strength is that thing that convinces you to try one more time when you want to throw in the towel and quit. 

I recently dived deeper into one of my favorite strength verses in Isaiah 40:31. It reads, “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.”

I looked at that part that said “renew your strength” for what felt like days. What does renewing your strength look like? 

It means when you feel you can’t do the hard, wearisome stuff anymore, the strength of God shows you that you Again and Again. 

Strength helped David encourage himself in the Lord even when it looked like God had abandoned him at Ziglag. (I Samuel 30) When all was against him, and even his friends wanted to stone him, he looked toward heaven for his help yet again. When he had lost everything he had, including his family, he was able to find still the strength to trust His God to help him recover all that he had lost and redeem himself in the eyes of his family and friends. 

Strength doesn’t just show up to rally us in our big momentous moments, but it slides in ever so quietly and gently beside us and breathes new vigor into our lifeless places. 

It whispers to your heart, “You can do this.” And it keeps whispering it until you believe it. 

It convinces you to keep walking and running even when your feet don’t feel like they could have taken another step. 

God’s strength helps us hold on through the hard times till we behold the good things He has planned for us.  

 I am learning that God is still proving He is my strength to hold it all together at this girl’s weakest. 

And on my hard days, I am so thankful for my God’s all-powerful, mighty strength. 

I am thankful that on the hard days that come to us more than once in our lifetime, God will once again renew our strength, and He will renew it as many times as we need it. 

See you in the field, 

Susan