Strength in Christ

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

If you talk to a businessman, success is financial gain; to a celebrity, fame and popularity; to an athlete, winning. That’s just how we are. We typically equate success with power, popularity, and possessions.

By that measure, you’d be hard-pressed to call the Apostle Paul successful. Whatever status he had achieved in life quickly changed when he met Christ. From that point forward, he became an itinerant preacher, often supporting himself by making tents.

Was he admired by the world? It doesn’t appear so. He was considered a troublemaker by the Jews. To others, he was simply a brash preacher spouting a new gospel. He was in and out of prison often, and it appears he was the victim of an unspecified ailment [2 Corinthians 12:7].

Was he powerful? Certainly not in his own strength and abilities. He was weak just like you and me. Speaking about himself, he wrote, “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” [Romans 7:19].

Thankfully, that’s not the end of the story because Paul had access to the amazing power of Christ. That’s why, when facing his human weakness, he boldly proclaimed that with Christ, he could do anything. 

Oh, by the way, that very same power is yours too, if you are a Christ follower. You, too, can do what God wants you to do — through His Son, Jesus Christ.

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13