How To Grow Strong In The Lord
Download MP3“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” - Ephesians 6:10
As Paul begins to conclude his letter to the Church in Ephesus he ends with telling them to be strong, not in themselves, not in their own will power, not in their own abilities but in the Lord.
This must be our focus because it is God’s command. We are to be strong. It’s the same command he has always given. Even to Joshua it was his command.
Joshua 1:7-9 NIV
7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
God’s command to us is to be strong, to be courageous.
You may be the type of person who doesn’t see yourself as strong. Well, that’s part of the problem. You see yourself wrongly. If God commands us to be strong in Him, then by his grace we can.
In Joshua 1:8 we see a key to being strong in the Lord, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.”
Always on our lips… that means we are to be speaking Word of God.
Our Christian walk is a learning and growing process which we are called to cooperate with what God wants to do in our lives by reading his Word, meditating on his Word, yielding to His word, believing it’s true but then there’s another part, an exercise of faith which we are commanded to do that will cause us to grow stronger in the things of God. That exercise of faith is confession.
We’ve talked about this before but I want to again share the importance of confession. Most people think about confessing their sin, which is what we are to do but confession actually means to agree with. We agree with God that a sin we commited was indeed sin and repent. We also agree with God about what His Word says is true, how He is and what has done for us through the redemptive work of Christ!
Let’s go back to Ephesians 6 and read a little more.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
We are to put on the full armor of God. How do we do this. We do not have a physical helmet of breast plate to put on. No, these are spiritual things that we put on. We believe these truths and accept the reality of them being truth in our live and we put them on by faith.
Now you remember in James Chapter 2 that faith requires action. How do we act in faith, putting on the armor of God and standing strong? By our confession.
2 Corinthians 4:13 NIV
It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak,
I want to show you more scripture but first let’s talk about hope. Hope as used in Scripture means a confident expectation based on God’s Word. God’s Word creates in us a confident expectation of his Will coming to pass in our lives. This is biblical hope.
Now, let’s look at Hebrews 10:23
Hebrews 10:23 NIV
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
We are to hold onto the hope we profess. Now I think another translation will make it a little clearer what we are being commanded to do.
Hebrews 10:23 Young's Literal Translation
23 may we hold fast the unwavering profession of the hope, (for faithful [is] He who did promise),
You see it’s not that we just hold fast to the hope, we hold fast to the unwavering profession of that hope.
What does that mean? What we profess, what we proclaim, what we confess as true and expect to come to pass in our lives doesn’t waver because God’s Word doesn’t change.
Let’s look at an example.
In Ephesians 6, which we read earlier, it talks about the armor of God including the breastplate of righteousness. We are called to put on the breastplate of righteousness.
How? By accepting by faith it’s ours and agreeing with God that it’s ours by confessing it as true.
Now let’s look quickly at another verse about righteousness.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Through the redemptive work of Christ, we have become righteous. This is part of our armor. It’s up to us to put in on and we do that by faith, faith, a belief along with corresponding action to that belief, which often is by confession.
I want you to do this. I want you to read over the scriptures about you are righteous because of Christ and by faith put it on confessing, “I’m the righteousness of God in Christ”.
Confessing God’s truth about you is one way you stir it up. It’s one way you grow and become strong in an area. It’s how you put on the armor and stand strong in Him. Standing strong in Him is standing in faith, along with corresponding action like confession, of what Jesus has provided for you through his redemptive work.
Confess, “According to God’s Word, I am righteous in Christ.”
If you will confess God’s truth about you, it will start to become real to you but you have to continue. As it says in Joshua, don’t let his Word depart from your lips, meaning keep thinking about it and keep confessing it. Hold fast to your confessing of God’s truth. This is how you grow. This is how you become stronger.
Let’s grow. Let’s yield to what God wants to do in our lives by knowing and acting on his
Word in faith.
Blessings in Christ,
Tim Dumas
