I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

We’re not as strong as we think we are, but God is stronger than we think.

You become strong through God’s strength. His strength enters your life, delivered by the Holy Spirit—Jesus within—and the more dependent you are on God, the stronger in him you become. In our weakness, he is strong (2 Corinthians 12:10).

“I can do everything . . .” doesn’t mean, ‘Now that I’m a believer, I’m strong enough to do everything and anything for God.” Your own testimony can attest to the fears and failures related to such thinking.

The strength of “I can do everything . . .” comes through God, who gives you the strength you need for each day. Your ability to “do everything” is wholly dependent upon him because your strength is dependent upon him. It’s not a strength you work up to by pumping iron with emotional or mental barbells.

Strength comes from submission. The thing you do that may require the greatest strength is to submit yourself completely to God! But God is “working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13 NLT).

Strength is linked to faith. You believe in faith that God is giving you his strength; and so, in faith you can act in confidence, knowing the strength is there: “But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength” (2 Timothy 4:17 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. John 5:8–9 (NIV)

For thirty-eight years the man was paralyzed in a sickly cycle of passive dependency, coping to make it to the end of each day, longing for something else.

It’s the kind of circular survival thinking that traps us in a death-like state where we’re ruled by our fears and our stress, far removed from the abundant life Jesus promised.

Then Jesus said, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

He gave the man an option: “You can get up and walk, step into faith and leave behind your fear. God is strong, and he wants you strong.”

Like our own steps of faith, the first step was surely the hardest for the man. He had thirty-eight years of experience telling him his legs would not support a walk; he had no experience in trusting this man named Jesus.

It took courage, energy and pain to take the first step, but then, he had one step of experience telling him Jesus might be right; two steps telling him Jesus could be right; three steps telling him Jesus must be right; four steps telling him Jesus is absolutely right.

Jesus didn’t enslave the man; he liberated him, empowering him with choice and independence from his fears.

Paralyzed in confusion and fear, the questions remain:

• Do I want to be healed?
• Will I do whatever God says to be healed?
• Will I pick up my mat and walk, making godly choices?
• Will I step into faith and away from my fear?
   
  Father, I want to be healed. Help me in my unbelief. Be my strength and my boldness. Amen.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” John 5:6 (NIV)

Long ago and far away I was diagnosed with clinical depression and began the hard work of deep, lasting, in-Jesus recovery.

One day Jesus asked me, “Do you want to be healed?”

I was reading in John’s book about the time he stopped with Jesus by the Sheep Gate in ancient Jerusalem. There was a pool there where people waited for a chance to be healed by one of God’s angels, but, as I read, Jesus looked over and into my eyes.

“Do you want to be healed?”

It seemed like such a ridiculous question. Of course, I wanted to be healed! But, then, I knew what he meant.

Was I willing to do the hard work of facing painful situations, uncovering bitterness, and admitting to deep, resentful anger? Was I willing to give up my stubborn excuses that allowed me to stay the same, somehow seeing my sickness as more secure than my health?

Was I willing to give up control, let God be God, and admit that I can’t, but he can; or would I rather insist that I can, even though I can’t, holding myself in a cycle of helplessness and hopelessness?

By the pool at the Sheep Gate, Jesus asked an invalid of thirty-eight years: “Do you want to be healed?” His question swept through the man, swept through 2,000 years, and swept into the shadows of my soul.

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me . . .” (John 5:7 NIV).

But there stood the Great Healer holding out help, acutely aware that we can’t, but God can, knowing this to be true because he was walking toward the only way to re-create us whole and healthy. He was on the road to Calvary.

The question lingers for you: Do you really want to be healed?

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

God pours his power into your life, giving you his strength to do what he’s called to do.

Faith is acting in confidence that God’s power is active in and through your life; faith is trusting God’s power will be your strength to do everything through him.

He’s not asking you to live life under your own power or through your own strength. That would limit what you can do while God’s power and strength are unlimited.

When you say, “There’s something I’d really like to do for God, but I don’t think that I can do it,” God may reply, “Great! I’m glad you’ve figured it out. You can’t do it by yourself, but with my power working through you, you can do anything I ask you to do.”

If you stay at “I can’t” and never move power to “God can,” then you’re less likely to even try great things for God. It’s like having a car with the most powerful engine ever built, but saying, “I don’t think it can get me past the first intersection.” So you leave it in your garage, never taking it onto the road.

God’s power is available to you: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13 NLT).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13–14 (NIV)

You were God’s first choice for your place on his team, but being part of God’s squad requires you to shoulder the responsibilities of team membership. You’re no longer playing as if you’re a team of one.

When teams work together, they become more than just a group of individuals; they move in unity with one heart and one mind, a model of oneness with God.

Teams build on the strength of each player and they adjust so that individual weaknesses become irrelevant. A unified team understands that what affects one team member also affects every team member, and so they dig in deep to commitment.

On God’s team, when one teammate stumbles, other team members step into the gap, physically and spiritually; when one teammate’s faith falters, other teammates stand firm in their faith, confident and encouraging that God will guide and provide.

A team of Jesus-ones challenge each other to “press on toward the goal to win the prize” (Philippians 3:14 NIV). They build each other up, carry each other’s burdens, and celebrate one another’s success, whether large or small, collective or individual.

As we teammates are learning to love one another, God mixes our talents, abilities, spiritual gifts, personalities, and experiences into a supernaturally-charged recipe that will create a massive explosion of Jesus-action-and-energy.

God didn’t give us gifts just to sit and watch from the sidelines. You’re part of the team; get into the game and see God stretch you “heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14 NIV).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel. Philippians 1:27 (NIV)

Instead of seeing evangelism as something you have to do on your own, get together with some other believers and work together.

Be inventive as you collectively tell others about Jesus. Have a movie night, game night, dessert night—the possibilities are unlimited.

Make a list and check it twice. Who is God telling you to pray for, encourage, or support with Jesus-love? Write down the names so you can give them considered thought and prayer. Collect names from everyone in your small group of friends and tell each other why you believe God placed each person on the list.

Here are four ways your can pray for your friends and family:

1. Pray for an opportunity to talk about Jesus (Colossians 4:3). Ask God to give you an opportunity to tell others about Christ, and to invite them to your Jesus-love events. God will take you seriously and answer your prayer!

2. Pray for God to prepare hearts. Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, sometimes asks, “Do you know how God softens hearts? He sends the rain!” Anytime you see someone going through a storm in life, you can know God is softening a heart.

3. Pray for God to tenderize your heart. Ask God to give you a burden, which is just an old-fashioned word that means your heart is tender toward a specific person or group of people.

4. Pray that the words of Jesus “will simply take off and race through the country to a groundswell of response” (2 Thessalonians 3:1 MSG), just as they did among the early Christians.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.