“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
UPHELD (Pt 1)
God is strong, we sometimes think we are strong until we are shown that the spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak. We come to the Lord in humility asking that his righteous right hand will uphold us.
For God’s righteousness is strength. He is able to overcome all evil and even though the devil attempted to overcome Jesus when he was at his weakest Christ’s righteousness made him strong.
“After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”’” (Matt 4:2–4).
We eventually realise that strength comes from God: “the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor 1:25). Jesus was weakened in the wilderness and by the flogging of Roman whips, he was made to carry the cross and then hung upon it fastened so that he could not move, held to the wood by nails. And yet Jesus remained strong, God’s love was stronger than the hate of men and of the domain of darkness.
“Then said Jesus, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots” (Luke 23:34).
How great is God’s love! How marvellous are his righteous decrees!
We also move in God’s righteousness, he upholds us in all our ways. He has promised to strengthen us, so it’s to his strength we look.
Men look to military might, or the power of men, but “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior” (Ps 147:10). Men look at the outward façade but God looks at the heart. So “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD” (Ps 31:24).
The Lord has ways and means, they may not be the same as men’s ways but they are always the most effective ways to bring a good, righteous and blessed outcome to the problems that we face.
We are upheld by the strongest hands. Praise God!