I WANT TO BE STRONG
March 11, 2025
You know me and my running aspirations. I have some pretty far-out goals. I’m not there yet, but I keep focusing on them and doing my daily plan. A client inspired me with her whiteboard calendar, so I bought one and this month has the details of each day’s effort. Last Tuesday’s blizzard put that day on hold, but today there is sunshine, and I will soon head out the door to run.
However, this blog isn’t about my exercise goals . . . but it is about being strong.
I went to a lecture several years ago in which the leader talked about the heart. She shared one of those fascinating stories that makes us scratch our heads. The setting is in the book of Acts which tells about the church in its beginning days. Ananias and Sapphira, husband and wife, plotted together. They saw the admiration others received when they sold land and gave all the proceeds to the apostles. They sold a piece of property they owned, but they planned to keep back some of the proceeds for themselves. That would have been fine if they had told the truth. However, both husband and wife told Peter the money they gave him was the entire amount. The Bible tells us that Peter asked Ananias why he had allowed Satan to fill his heart to lie to the Holy Spirit.
In our small group session, we continued a discussion of that story. Why did they get struck dead? This was the early church, and God was showing them an important lesson. I told of an incident in which I had been critical of a friend and then God spoke to my heart that I had been guilty of the same thing in a different context. God saw my heart. After I got over the shock of seeing my motive, I had gratitude for the understanding.
The next day, I was out shopping for a gift. As part of the gift, I wanted to give the person a bookmark. I couldn’t find one, so I went home. I sat down to read and opened a book I hadn’t read in a while. A bookmark fell out, a perfect one to pass on. It featured a drawing of a little girl looking up at the stars with a caption about God’s miracle—I don’t remember the exact words. I turned it over where I had scribbled a Scripture reference—
2 Chronicles 16:9.
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”
The story behind this verse is very interesting, but I won’t go into that at this time. I will just say that it has to do with a king who could have had God on his side, but he chose to rely on another king.
It came to me that this is powerful motivation to give God my heart. I must not be offended when He uses others to help me see myself. I must learn to take correction from His Spirit, however it may come, so that my heart is pure. Why? He knows our hearts. He looks all over the whole earth to find the person whose heart “is fully committed to him.” He wants to show Himself strong in that person’s behalf. Wow! If my motivation is pure, I have His power working on my behalf!
I have been singing a favorite song (it’s from the 70’s!) which is taken from the book of James—“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up, higher and higher, and He shall lift you up.”
When we try to lift ourselves up in the eyes of other people, we miss out—big time! Seek Him, His ways, open our hearts to correction—and He “will show Himself strong on our behalf.”