Job 23:6
“Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.”
Job had a false view of how God strengthens His children. Job believed that God would strengthen him without struggle. He didn’t think that what he was going through was God’s way of strengthening him, but it was. When Job’s trials were over he was a much stronger person spiritually than he was when he began.
The Christian must realize that God’s workout session is not going to be easy. When a person desires to gain strength, they don’t ask to lift light weights, but they add weight to the barbell and struggle with it, but that struggle gives them more strength. Likewise, God must send His children through His workout session of struggle so they can become stronger.
Look at the Apostle Paul. Paul struggled with some sort of eye disease. Three times the Apostle Paul asked God to remove the disease, but God told him in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” No, God did not remove the trial from Paul’s life, but He gave him the grace to lift that trial which resulted in him becoming a stronger Christian.
The burdens and heartaches God places upon you are there to help you become a stronger Christian. The struggles that God allows you to go through put you under pressure, but the pressure strengthens you as a Christian. It strengthens you because you run to God for help through prayer. Prayer always strengthens the Christian. It strengthens you because you learn how to lift that weight which will help you to help others when they lift the same trial. When you look at every heartache you face know that it was given to you to strengthen you.
You can do one of two things when you are placed in God’s workout session. You can continue to go on and let it strengthen you, or you can quit and never realize the strength God had planned for you. God placed you under the burden of your trials because He knew it would make you stronger. Is it pleasant to go through God’s workout session. Not at all! But, it will help you to be a stronger Christian once you’ve gone through it.
Furthermore, always remember that God will never place more on you than you can bear. 1 Corinthians 10:13 reminds us, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” You can always be assured that if God approved the trial you face then He knew you could take it.
Friend, no one may understand what you are facing today, but you can be assured that God is in control. He simply placed you in His workout session to strengthen you so that you can be used in a greater way. Don’t fight it; lift it. Let the grace of God help you as you endure your trial, for when the trial is complete you will find yourself a stronger Christian. If you give up, you will never realize the strength God had intended for you. Keep lifting the weight God has placed you under, for that weight is simply God’s workout session to strengthen you for even greater opportunities.