Be Strong

By Cal Cook

Be strong and courageous are the words Moses uses to Joshua…those are the words Joshua uses to the Israelites and those are essentially the final words that Paul uses to the church in Ephesus as he writes from prison in Rome. In fact the words used in both the Hebrew (Joshua & Deut) and in the Greek (Ephesians) speak of gaining or receiving this strength and courage. The Greek is ἐνδυναμόω endynamoō which is a combination of words to receive or obtain and power or strength. The power or strength is a variant of the word we use for dynamite. Paul says, ‘obtain dynamite from the Lord’ (Cal’s paraphrase). Jesus even tells us that we would do even greater things than Him (John 14:12) if we only believe! Power like dynamite is available for those who believe…for those who seek to do the will of God…for those who are called by His Name.

Yet why don’t we see His power these days? Is it not available or not obtained? Remember the receiving the obtaining comes in faith. The Church in Africa and Asia is filled with stories of miracles…yet the church in the West is filled with empty pews. How can we ‘put on the Full Armor of God’ and do battle with the ‘Spiritual Forces of Darkness’ when we don’t even believe they really exist? The whole thing falls apart in our lack of faith! Power is received for a purpose, to accomplish something…yet why is it even needed if evil is only a metaphor?

We say we want strength in the Lord, we say we want to experience miracles…yet we don’t even believe in the things the power of the Lord works against. It’s like trying to do battle with the air…swinging a bat at an imaginary ball…trying to shoot for three points when we have no hoop!