When You Have No Strength

Grief alone will not provide strength, unless it leads to undivided alone time with God.   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~   When you have no strength, you strengthen yourself in the LORD. The children’s song speaks volumes…”they are weak but He is strong.” But how? That’s the real question isn’t it? How did David strengthen Himself in the LORD? What was His process? Because it’s not very helpful for us just to say, “He strengthened himself in the LORD, and you should too,” without knowing how he did that. And I think our text, and this particular verse, is helpful to us on understanding how Strengthening yourself in the LORD does and does not happen. HOW WE SEEK THE LORD’s STRENGTH: Grieving, alone, does not strengthen you in the LORD. We see in this text that the men, including David, grieved heavily. This is not to see that grieving is not a part of the process, but grieving is not the whole process. Some people will tell you, “You just need to have a good cry…just a good rant session. Get it all out and then you will feel better. But it’s not true. You are not changed by just grieving through a situation. The book of Psalms is filled with songs of Lament. Grief. The expression of pain, heartache, confusion fills the pages of the book of Psalms. Psalm 12:1, 6 “Save O lORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak…(7) You O LORD will keep them (the poor); you will guard from this generation forever.” Psalms 13:1, 5 “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?…But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” In the Psalms of Lament, yes their is grief, but there is a turning to the LORD, a trusting in the LORD. The grief is a way of emptying you of all your strength, but there is no strength to replace it. Thinking that grief alone will strengthen you is the same mistake we make when we say, “I just need to get away. I need a vacation. That will make everything better.” This was my way of thinking for a long time until very recently that I realized that it is not the vacation that refreshes me but rather the undistracted, undisturbed time alone with the LORD. So grief alone, just letting it out, getting it off your chest, is not what strengthened David.