Your Father loves you

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"Be strong in His power" By Diane Webb

Ephesians 6: 10—"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might".

We don't have to be strong using our own strength; we can be strong using the power of the Lord. When facing something you do not feel strong enough to deal with, ask the Lord for His strength to see you through. Have confidence because your God can handle anything. Lean on Him. Tell Him your troubles. Recognize you cannot do it on your own. Someone the other day said they do not pray for God's help unless they feel it's very important. In other words, they don't bother God with small "unimportant" matters they can handle themselves. This person is under a misconception of their life and of God. There are no small unimportant matters in our life. Everything is important and worthy of God's involvement; and really, what can we do without His help? How can anyone make it through one single day without the Lord's help? Imagine not talking to the Lord but once every now and then "when it's important". It's like a friend who only calls when they need something. You know when you hear their voice on the phone they are going to ask you for a favor, money, or advice. They never call just to have a regular conversation. It always has to be a crisis or need of some sort. It makes you feel used and unimportant in their life. A real friend calls regularly to see how you are doing, to see if you need anything, or just to talk to you. When we wait until "it's important" to call on God we have usually messed up and need His help bailing us out of the problem. We rely on Him to sort things back out again. If we had been talking to Him regularly, we may have been able to avoid the situation entirely. The truth of the matter is we need the power of His might every minute of every day. In a fraction of a second we can find ourselves in a bad, scary, or dangerous situation. We need our heavenly Father holding our hand all the time. We need His strength all the time. Just getting out of bed some mornings (all mornings) requires His strength. We need the power of God not just to fight battles but to live in this world we have to live in. We are assaulted on every level whether we realize it or not. Turn on the television and you are exposed to negative, downgrading, spiritually defeating words. Turn on the radio and you are pelted with rated X lyrics. Stand in line at the store and you suddenly over hear words or conversations you wish you hadn't. Sit in a restaurant and the people at the next table are glorifying sinful behavior. You—we all—need God's strength just to protect ourselves spiritually all day. Never mind the "important" things—whatever those might be. Think about your relationship with your earthly father and make sure this is not affecting your relationship with God. Some people get confused between their earthly father and their heavenly Father. If your earthly father was a distant figure who only appeared in your life to handle "the important things" you may have gotten the idea you cannot call on your heavenly Father unless it's important. This is not true. Your heavenly Father thinks everything about you is important. He likes to just spend time with you. You don't have to be "in trouble" to speak to your Father in heaven. Accept you cannot do anything in your own strength—not even breathe. Turn your whole self—your whole life—over to God. Rely on the power of His might for everything.

Dear heavenly Father, thank you for being there for me even when I don't realize it. I recognize I cannot do anything in my own strength. I need you every day all day. I pray Lord for the power of your might as I face this day. In Christ's name I pray, Amen.