“Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. (Psalms 84:5,7). If we examine the life of Jesus Christ, we see that He truly embodied the principle of going from strength to strength. Sometimes He embodied the strength of forcefully expelling people from the temple, speaking with undeniable authority, overturning tables and cracking the whip. Sometimes He showed strength by meekly and peacefully submitting to arrest and trial. Sometimes He showed strength by answering those who challenged Him with impeccable logic, or unparalleled understanding of the Scriptures, or brutal personal attacks of their failures, and sometimes He said nothing at all. Sometimes He showed strength by focusing on feeding and serving the poor and the needy, and sometimes He praised the expensive gift of ointment that might have fed the poor but which was dedicated to a higher and holier purpose on that occasion. We will be called upon to face a multitude of diverse and unique challenges, and they will all require their own kind of strength. If we put our trust in the Lord, we can rely on Him and be led by the Spirit so that we may go from strength to strength. It takes humility to lay aside our hard won strength that was so effective at dealing with one particular challenge but that will help us not at all with the new challenge we have. We may even fear that our ability to overcome our challenges and to make weak things become strong was some kind of fluke that will not happen again. But I do know that with Christ by our side, we can go from strength to strength and prosper as we humbly and courageously embrace the new strength that we must have to face the new challenge.
