"Made Strong Out of Weakness"

I don't remember waking up I just know I wasn't sleeping. Parading through my mind was a long list of things that needed to be done and lying there only half conscience I felt defeated. Finally I drifted off to sleep but when I woke up I was reminded of the command given to Joshua, "Be strong and very courageous." I woke up thinking about the connection between faith and action.

Faith that is real invokes action. What that means to me is that instead of standing still dreading the tasks that are before me because I feel inadequate I move towards them believing that if God has given me the task He will provide the means to do it. Joshua was told seven times to be strong and courageous. He had seen the Promised Land but he had also seen the giants and the walled cities. If my faith is real it means that I have the same strength and courage available to me that was available to Joshua.

Joshua remembered what he had seen when he spied out the land forty years earlier. It would have been natural to be afraid or terrified except that God promised to go with him, He promised that He would never leave Joshua or forsake him. When I was tossing and turning in my bed last night all I could see was how inadequate I was for the tasks that awaited me. When I woke up I was reminded that like Joshua God has also promised me that I am not alone.

Since I was thinking about how faith and actions fit together I looked up Hebrews eleven. I reviewed again how people who had put their faith in God had responded to the challenges they faced. What I saw in each life was courage and strength. I saw people of action and then I saw that they were, "Made strong out of weakness."

Father, thank You for reminding me again that I never have to be afraid of the jobs that seem impossible for me to do, because You've promised that if You called me to do it You'll equip me as well. Thank You for the encouragement I find in seeing Your faithfulness to those who trust You. Please let my life be an encouragement to others as I choose to trust You. Please let Your strength be seen in my weakness.