Now all glory to God, who is able to make you strong, just as my Good News says.
Romans 16:25
There are days when you feel like you just want to give up. Pack it all in and do something new. Perhaps you are fed up with your work or your relationship or your church or your life. You drive to the countryside and look at the farm you always dreamed of buying, or maybe you open up the job website that you always come back to in your lowest moments and you wonder to yourself, ‘what if I just quit?’
We all have those days.
But Paul writes in Romans 16:25 that the Gospel is not just that you will go to heaven when you die but that you will be made strong here on earth.
The word that he uses is the Greek word στηρίζω (stērizō), which means to establish or to stand firm. He is not talking about a domineering kind of power but a fortitude that can overcome any attack. This doesn’t mean that you are meant to simply survive life but that he wants you to have confidence, power and fortitude. You are more than an overcomer in Christ Jesus.
In fact this is exactly what he says just before this in verse 20.
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
Notice that the devil will not be crushed under God’s feet but that he will use your feet to crush him. God wants to give you spiritual authority and power over the enemy.
It is normal to have moments when you feel overwhelmed, the question is what do you do when you get there? Where do you look for strength? Because wherever you look, that will define the kind of strength that you receive. If you look for strength in a pint glass, you will receive a temporary feeling of strength. If you look for it in your skills and abilities, you can discover an inner strength. However, if you look for your strength in God, you can have access to spiritual strength that is far beyond your natural limitations.
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:31
How do we get this strength? Isaiah says that we get it by placing our hope in God. It is a strength that comes through trust and faith. We remember that God is with us and working through each moment.
In his book, anti-fragile, Nassim Taleb says that we often think that the opposite of frailty is resilience but that resilience is actually neutral or passive. There is instead a type of anti-fragility that grows under pressure and strengthens under stress. You don’t just withstand it but you are strengthened in the process.
I believe that God has already been doing this in your life. When you look back at what you have made it through and see who you have become, God uses every attack and every trial to strengthen you. Look to God today and he will strengthen you for whatever battles you face.
Read the full chapter: Romans 16
