“Be Strong In The Lord”

Ephesians 6:5-11

5) Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;

6) Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;

7) With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:

8) Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.

9) And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.

10) Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

11) Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

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t is of a necessity that those whom the Lord has saved know the truth. We must understand what He has actually done for us. Without an awareness of things spiritual, we will be unable to properly appreciate the Lord and all He has accomplished. This will make it more difficult for us to adopt the stand we must have. Not only will our stand be weak, but we may find ourselves discontent, as well. For if we remain ignorant of what God has purchase, we may still feel there are other things to be found (outside of salvation, that is).

Understand that the sacrifice of Jesus has mad provision for us in all aspects of our lives is another victory the Lord wants us to have. In the day in which we live, people of the world are going to be won by seeing us blessed. They must see peace, prosperity, health and trust.

It is truly amazing that we attempt to do much of God’s work in our lives, ourselves. Obviously, He never expected us to stand in our own power. Why is this unlikely? Because the Lord desires glory and honor for Himself. If we were able to run our lives through our own power, attention would never be drawn to Him.

There is no substitute for a real understanding and acquisition of the Word of God. It is essential that we read, study and apply the Word—for it is through these means that we are strengthened to stand against anything through which the devil would try to overtake us. Additionally, we are to draw strength from a knowledge of what He has already done. After all, what have we to fear when we have evidence that He has delivered others from like predicaments as ours before?

There is nothing mysterious about our strength in the Lord. It is bestowed upon us through the power of the Holy Spirit—and is exclusive to no one. That is, in that God honors commitment, anyone willing to be committed will be empowered.

Don’t ever adopt the attitude of someone that you won’t be committed because someone wants you to be. The people of God have a responsibility to accept the fact that we are not in “this” by ourselves! We are to be strong in and for the Lord. Obviously we will be stronger as a whole, than by ourselves. When we are divided, we are easier to conquer. Conversely, when we are united, we draw from our collective resources in the Lord. Together we are much harder, if not impossible, to defeat.

Part of “being strong in the Lord” is being willing to accept that reality is neither how we see it nor what we make it. Reality is what the Lord sees and how He sees it. Rarely is it easy to change one’s natural perceptions, but here is an instance where we must turn our back on what we think, we see and believe in spite of ourselves.

Generally, the biggest “besetting” issue in the life of most saints is one of humility. It is so hard to relinquish our minds to Christ because of the great pride we take in thinking for ourselves. Not only do we desire to run our own lives, we ran others’, as well. Always included in this mind-set of being “aware” of oneself is self-promotion. Unfortunately, since one usually needs help to promote oneself, one in this circumstance finds himself a “slave” of others. He finds his desire to be to please those men who can help him.

God forbid we find ourselves a slave to “eye service”. When more concerned with man than with standing up for the Lord (being “strong” in Him), we may do “right”, but with an ulterior motive. As long as someone is looking, we desire to “look good” in his eyes. Though the outcome may be desirable, the motivation is not pure. We must “do” because “the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous”. Besides, who doesn’t want the Lord to say “well done”?

Being strong in the Lord means exactly what it says. We are not to depend on our own will, understanding, or strength. Only through one hundred percent dependency upon Him will we enjoy one hundred percent strength. If you are happy with your own inadequacies, fine, but if you want to be an overcomer, you must depend upon the Lord.

Saints should never confess weakness, for confession of weakness means that the strength and power of the Lord is not enough. The admonition to be strong in the Lord is not for the benefit of the reader only, but for all those who also need to benefit from the strength and power imparted by Him.