April 15, 2013. The Boston Marathon bombing shook the nation, and in the aftermath the phrase “Boston Strong” emerged as the rally cry during the recovery process. It inspired millions of people.
Equally inspiring was a nightly news program recently featuring a Paralympics athlete from the United States. His breakout quote from the interview was: “You don’t know how strong you are until you’re forced to be strong.” So true.
My wife Jeanne and I have come face-to-face with a few faith-testing life events involving our three children (one had a brief 5-month stay before going to heaven). God’s sovereign sights were set on forcing us to be strong, and by His grace we eventually came out with a deeper faith.
Peter, an original disciple of Jesus, wrote this: “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast” (1 Peter 5:10).
I call that “God Strong”.
People who have no relationship with God can certainly summon up an inner strength and resolve to make it through a difficult ordeal. However, they are drawing from the way God created them in the first place! They are “God Strong” in one sense and probably not aware of it. Those people can also use their experience to help others with similar struggles, and I applaud those efforts.
Christ-followers, on the other hand, live out “God Strong” lives with some unique differences:
1. God’s presence in our lives, the Holy Spirit, offers a power source beyond human strength. It’s the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11)!
2. God gets the credit as our Source of strength (Philippians 4:13).
3. The strength we draw from God enables us to make a difference in other people’s lives for all eternity.
If I am a talented athlete and my ultimate goal in this life is a gold medal at a world-wide competition, I have grossly underachieved regardless of any handicap I have (and I have many).
Peter sums it up well: “These (trials) have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).
“God Strong”.