Meek Not Weak part 4
Strength announces itself without a truly strong person having to toot their own horn. You can--and should--be strong. Because, as Nehemiah 8:10 (NLT) says, "..."Don't be dejected and sad, for the joy of the LORD is your strength!"" Meekness is strength under control. And the joy of the Lord is our strength. And the joy of the Lord--the thing that makes God happy--is love. When He loves us, and when we love each other with that love. That's the New Commandment, right? Love one another as He has loved you. That's what God wants, if I can say it that way. That's what makes God happy. And if you think about it, what else but love could make the God who IS love happy? What else but love would the God who IS love care about? We think God is so, like, sin obsessed. When really God sent His only begotten Son as the Lamb of God who TOOK AWAY the sin of the world. God dealt with sin. Took care of it. Took it away. And I know we still struggle with this idea of having a "sin nature." Or we struggle with a sin consciousness. But I don't believe we have to. I believe we can lay aside the sin, and the weight that so easily besets us (Hebrews 12:1). We don't have to drag around the corpse of a dead old man. We don't have to let what Adam did define us. Because we're not IN Adam. We're in Christ. Because Christ is in us. In our weakness HE is strong, because His joy is our strength. And remember yesterday when we were talking about "constant sorrow" vs "the right hand power seat"? We need HIS strength most when we are weak. (Logical, I know, but sometimes it seems like sense isn't so common.) We need His joy when we are sorrowful. And guess what: Just because you know the true God and the One who He sent (just because you have eternal life, in other words), that doesn't mean everything goes exactly the way you think it should. My Dad's favorite verse in the Bible is John 11:35, "Jesus wept." I bring that up because Jesus, even Jesus Himself, went through some stuff. Hebrews 4:15 (NLT) tells us, "This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin." In other words, Jesus can help us through it because He went through it. He overcame the world. And that's why--and how--we are overcomers. We don't need to overcome. We have already overcome! Past tense. 2,000 years ago. When Jesus took away the sin (or unbelief) of the world. And He did that by giving us something (someONE, Himself, love) to believe in. Psalm 30:11 (NLT) says what I'm trying to say pretty well, "You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy." So we don't have to pretend to be strong. We can feel what we feel. And then we can trust the Lord to do what He does. Remember what Joseph said? "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people" (Genesis 50:20). Our weakness gives God opportunity to be strong. We don't need to be strong. We can be weak. We don't need to pretend we're something we're not. Because His joy is our strength. His LOVE is our strength. And we have that no matter what!