Our Strength is in God

It is good when we realise we need the LORD as much now as ever to guide, protect and strengthen us to do His will.  The life of a believer is marked by increased dependence and reliance upon God.  When we are born again we are not like new recruits starting their first job who are made to watch safety videos, fill out paperwork and are lined out with a job they learn to do independently themselves.  We raise our kids to learn to do chores and tasks without being directed at every step, yet it is the opposite for children of God.  We are the ones who imagine we can do things well ourselves until God opens our eyes to see our need for His strength and step-by-step guidance continually.

William Gurnall asserted the biblical doctrine that our strength is in the LORD.  He wrote in The Christian in Complete Armour:

"The strength of the general in other hosts lies in his troops.  He flies, as a great commanded once said to his soldiers, upon their wings; if their feather be clipped, their power broken, he is lost; but in the army of saints, the strength of every saint, yea, of the whole host of saints, lies in the Lord of hosts.  God can overcome his enemies without their hands, but they cannot so much as defend themselves without his arm.  It is one of God's names, 'the Strength of Israel' (1 Sam. 15:29).  He was the strength of David's heart; without him this valiant worthy (that could, when held up in his arms, defy him that defied a whole army) behaves himself strangely for fear, at a word or two that dropped from the Philistine's mouth.  He was the strength of his hands, 'He taught his fingers to fight,' and so He is the strength of all his saints in their war against sin and Satan...The Christian, when fullest of divine communications, is but a glass without a foot, he cannot stand, or hold what he hath received, any longer than God holds him in his strong hand." (Gurnall, William. The Christian in Complete Armour. Banner of Truth, 2002, pp. 18–19.)

The imagery of stemware without a foot is insightful, for unless the vessel is held in an upright position by a hand it is completely useless.  So it is for followers of Jesus Christ, for He said in John 15:5:  "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."  A wine glass cannot hold wine without a foot, and a branch cannot bear fruit unless it is connected to the vitality of the vine.  Jesus identified Himself as the vine and those who have been born again are the branches joined to Him by faith.  Like the seemingly endless waves of pride that rise up within us, we must continually remind ourselves we are incapable of obeying God or being fruitful at all without active reliance and a personal connection to Him.  Our strength and fruitfulness is not due to us, but is all by grace through Him.

"Brethren, be strong in the LORD and in the power of His might," Paul exhorted believers in Ephesians 6:10.  All our strength and power comes from the LORD, and what is impossible for man is possible with God.  On his own mighty Samson was weaker than his adversaries who bound him.  God often uses our failures to correct our proud and self-confident perspectives, for though Samson was blinded he looked to God for strength who helped him become stronger than ever before.  We remain untroubled when we discover our strength is in God, and praise God He makes us very fruitful by His grace.