God Supplies Strength

God Supplies Strength                                                                July 5, 2026

Do you ever feel like a shell of your former self?  This is not a question only for the older generation.  For anyone, life can be tiring.  It can wear on us.  At times we feel like David, who said, “For we are sojourners before You, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope” (I Chronicles 29:15).  This was an expression of David’s humility before God as he was preparing materials to build the Temple, and he recognized that there was nothing man could do that would compare with the permanence and power of God.

Some days we may feel this more strongly than other.  Job said man is, “Like a flower he comes forth and withers.  He also flees like a shadow and does not remain” (Job 14:2).  The Psalms are particularly fond of this shadow analogy (102:11; 109:23; 144:4).  The Bible does not ignore this feeling that is common to all people.  It acknowledges these emotions and then teaches us how to deal with feelings of futility.  Laments in the Psalms are an important part of this teaching.

“Why are you in despair, O my soul?”  Psalms 42 and 43 show the pain of despair, but then points to hope in God.  No matter how weak we are, God is strong.  No matter how inadequate we see ourselves, God has the answer and He supplies the sustenance to keep us alive and active.  As Jesus said to the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”(John 4:13-14).  Water brings life and sustains us.  The water that the Lord provides is living water, springing up to the eternal life (John 7:37-38).  This is connected to the Holy Spirit (Vs 39).  The greater meaning of this passage seems to be the same as what God was trying to tell Ezekiel in chapter 47.

God showed Ezekiel a vision of water coming from the Temple (Ezekiel 47:1-2).  When the water was measured, it was found to go deeper and wider the farther it traveled from its source.  God provides for us all we need to live well in this life, and to be ready for the one to come.  The fountain of God’s love began as more than sufficient for our needs and only continues to deepen and sustain us as we continue in Him.  The life of a Christian is not the path of least resistance in this world.  It often involves hardships, but we have more than enough to sustain and guide us in God’s Word.  If we listen to His word, the sword of the Spirit, He will be a source of living water that will keep us refreshed to the end.

Occasionally, we loosen our grip on what truly sustains us.  We may even feel like a bag of dry lifeless bones.  We “feel our age” or we see the futility of hanging on to the world that surrounds us.  This does not mean the only answer is to dry up and blow away.  We can be revived.  Ezekiel 37 shows this to the nation of Israel, which was dead and lifeless, and yet they were not beyond hope.  They were not past saving.  All it took was the breadth of God, and just like the first breath of life, that animated Adam’s dust, God can bring us to life again.

We sing about revival.  We ask God to “revive us, again,” and to “let the revival begin in me.”  Let’s hold on to those thoughts when we feel stretched thin.  “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).  What a shame it would be if we gave up in the final stretch, especially since we have those urging us on (Hebrews 12:1).  We may not know when our race is almost over.  The end is always around some corner and may come upon us suddenly.  We are called upon to stay prepared, ready to the end.

Can we make it around one more corner?  Not alone, but by God’s grace, strength, and sustenance we can.  We can’t make it on our own, but if we will let God fill us with His word we can be renewed, refreshed, and ready to continue serving.  God supplies us “all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence” (II Peter 1:3).  “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

“Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (Isaiah 40:31).                          By Doy Moyer