POWERFULLY
PRESENT STRENGTH
BREAD
1 God
is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Psalms 46:1 (NIV)
1 I
love you, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my
rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my
stronghold.
Psalms 18:1-2 (NIV)
26 “There
is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on
the clouds in his majesty. 27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the
everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, ‘Destroy
him!’”
Deuteronomy 33:26-27 (NIV)
13 I
can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13 (NIV)
BUTTER
“There is to be
communication of the Holy Spirit with the individual Christian in the present
life, and in a sense the Holy Spirit’s communication carries with it the entire
Trinity. In a sense the Spirit is the Trinity’s agent in communicating with us
humans. If I am going to walk in this present life according to my high calling
as a Christian, I need a strength higher than my own strength. I need the power
of Christ. How is this power of Christ to be mine? It’s not enough just to
imagine that I have this power. It’s not even enough to take the second step
and reckon myself dead to sin and alive to Christ. There must also be a
communication of the power of Christ to me through the agency of the Holy
Spirit who indwells me.” Francis
Schaeffer
“When God is our
strength, it is strength indeed; when our strength is our own, it is only
weakness.” St.
Augustine
“A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of
success, and for doing God’s work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own
weakness. When God’s warrior marches
forth to battle, strong in his own might, when he boasts, ‘I know that I shall conquer,
my own right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory’, defeat
is not far distant. God will not go
forth with that man who marches in his own strength. He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned
wrongly, for ‘it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the
Lord of hosts’. They who go forth to
fight, boasting of their prowess, shall return with their gay banners trailed
in the dust, and their armour stained with disgrace. Those who serve God must serve Him in His own
way, and in His strength, or He will never accept their service. That which man doth, unaided by divine
strength, God can never own. The mere
fruits of the earth He casteth away; He will only reap that corn, the seed of
which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine
love. God will empty out all that thou
hast before He will put His own into thee; He will first clean out the
granaries before He will fill them with the finest of the wheat……Your emptiness
is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the
making ready for your lifting up.” C. H. Spurgeon
“God is your refuge and strength – a refuge to protect you and a
strength to help you overcome. Both
defense and offense. Even when you are
wrestling with Him, He is there to preserve and empower. The times you think He has departed from you
are often the times He is most powerfully present. Whatever hardship you are struggling with, He
is in it – guiding you, protecting you, and spurring you on in your
journey.” Chris Tiegreen
HEART SAVOR
- · God is my strength – the powerful Rock on which I stand. What can man do to me? When God is on my side who can be against me? 31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31-32 (NIV)
- · It is the Lord Who helps me. It is He Who rises to show me compassion. 18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! Isaiah 30:18 (NIV)
- My God is an ever-present help – praise Him!
