Strength for the Journey

Life is a journey and sometimes we travel through green pastures and sometimes through parched desert areas. Some seasons are easy and everything works well but at other times, everything that can go wrong does go wrong one after the other and life can be a struggle. Where do we find strength for the journey especially in the dry, arid and difficult times? The psalmist continually states that God alone is our strength, refuge and consolation and that true strength is not found in our resources or even ourselves but only in God.

Psalm 84 especially brings this out so beautifully. When we feel drained and at the end of ourselves, God is there to refresh us and impart to us His strength. When we are in a difficult season, the natural pattern is for us to keep losing strength and eventually to give up in fatigue and despair. However, for those whose strength is in God, this psalm says we can go from strength to strength instead! What a contrast! This is because we can draw strength from God and God is an inexhaustible and never ending source of strength for us! The very valley of pain and weeping, the valley of Baca can become a place of springs, a place of strength and rejoicing in the Lord!
Psalm 84:4-7
⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
    they are ever praising you.
⁵ Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
    whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
⁶ As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
    they make it a place of springs;
    the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
⁷ They go from strength to strength,
    till each appears before God in Zion.

We have a part to play to shift the valley experience into a place of refreshing. As the Psalm says, we need to dwell in His presence and have our hearts set on Him as we journey through life. We need to go into His presence in worship, read and meditate on His word and wait on Him. We will then go from strength to strength and we will not feel weary anymore. Isaiah too understood that God alone can be our everlasting source of strength as God does not grow tired or weary. Isaiah says that God’s strength is particularly reserved for those who are humble to admit that they are weak and weary. Those who receive this strength are those who are actively seeking God, waiting on Him! They receive a strength, a power that helps them soar above their circumstances and to move forward despite the situation they are in!
Isaiah 40:28-31
²⁸ Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Paul and Silas too were in a valley experience as they were falsely accused and jailed. They did not sit down and complain and lose hope in their time of difficultly. Instead they chose to pivot their attention to God away from their problem and wait on Him! They looked to God and started praising God. Soon all the other prisoners joined them and God’s strength was supernaturally imparted and a earthquake broke their chains loose! In their weakness, the supernatural strength and presence of God came to help them break out of their situation! The jailer believed and was baptized and they were released the next morning. What a turnaround! What a testimony! The whole situation changed because Paul and Silas chose to tap into God’s strength in their time of need. That is why Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9 of God’s response to Paul’s prayer when he weak, “My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in your weakness”.
Acts 16:25-26
²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶ Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.

Are you going through a season of struggle right now? Are you tired, weary and discouraged? Don’t despair for there is hope in the Lord for your very situation! Your weakness can turn into strength and your situation can turn from a place of weeping to a place of joy and strength! You have the capacity to change the situation by pivoting back to God in the midst of your circumstance. Tap into God’s everlasting and unending strength and He will impart His strength to you. You will soon feel refreshed and grow from strength to strength and soar on wings like eagles! God will come through for you and renew you! You will overcome and you will move forward to living gloriously again!