“THAT WE MAY BE STRONG”

“Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments
which I command you this day, that ye may be strong,
and go in and possess the land”
Deuteronomy 11:8

Spiritual strength is the fruit of obedience. Our beliefs, doctrines and knowledge will not produce the kind of strength that is required to rise up, go in and possess the land of promise. It requires a doing that is the result of seeing and hearing. If we are not doers of the word, but remain hearers only, there is a deception that slowly and inexorably clouds our hearts and minds from the seeing of HIM.

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves…”
James 1:22

Paul exhorts us to “exercise thyself rather unto Godliness” (I Timothy 4:7). The trust that is placed in teachings and Christian theology, without the “reality” of His Life in us through the medium of doing, is in itself a deception. Goliath stood and taunted Israel for forty days! No man would respond to his challenge because there was no one in Saul’s army “experienced” in the victory that can only be had by walking with God. David’s faith however, had been proven (the Lion & the Bear) and tried and those experiences enabled him to rise up and defeat Goliath.

“And herein do I exercise myself,
to have always a conscience void of offence toward God,
and toward men”
Acts 24:16

Let us consider the ramifications in this day of division and strife within the Body of Christ (singular). What if we were to commit to walk in such a way that we maintain a clear conscience before God and men? What if we actually took action to exercise ourselves in forgiveness and genuine concern for the people of God around us? What would happen if, in seeing God’s heart, we would begin to consider the things of others as more important than our own? Let us begin afresh to be exercised by the Love of God unto Godliness in the affairs of this life.

Doing is the path to becoming

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“Christianity is not a voice in the wilderness, but a life in the world. It is not an idea in the air but feet on the ground going God’s way. It is not an exotic to be kept under glass, but a hardy plant to bear twelve months of fruits in all kinds of weather. Fidelity to duty is its root and branch. Nothing we can say to the Lord, no calling Him by great or dear names, can take the place of the plain doing of His will. We may cry out about the beauty of eating bread with Him in His kingdom, but it is wasted breath and a rootless hope unless we plow and plant in His kingdom here and now. To remember Him at His table and to forget Him at ours, is to have invested in bad securities. There is no substitute for plain, every-day goodness”
Maltbie Davenport (Mattie D) Babcock

Brian Troxel