True strength

I came upon a Scripture today that I wasn't familiar with.  It stood out and caught my eye.

"But they will be held guilty,
They whose strength is their god."
Habakkuk 1:11b

It got me thinking.  How many people go through life thinking that they don't need God, that they are strong enough to handle life on their own, thank you very much?

Does this mean we are supposed to be a bunch of weaklings, with no backbone or strength of our own?  Not at all.

Let's compare for a moment our own strength - even the strongest of the strong - against the strength and power of God.  This is ludicrous!  There is no comparison!  

The One who holds not only us together, keeps this world spinning around, and controls everything in the universe by the power of His might, is Almighty.  He is omnipotent.

Our "strength" is nowhere near how strong God is!

When we admit our weakness, come to Him admitting that we need His strength in order to live a life that pleases Him, then we are strong.  We become strong in His strength as we depend on His limitless strength!

Why would we want our own "strength" when we could lean on and have His strength instead?!

It's like asking someone if they would rather have one dollar or a million.  Yet we settle for "one dollar's" worth of strength when the Lord wants to give us a "million dollars'" worth of His power and strength!  This may be a crude analogy, but you get the point!

So getting back to this verse.  Being found guilty for being strong - that is strange!  But it is when we make our strength into a god that we are found guilty.  A god is that which we lean on and look to, whether knowingly or not, for strength, security, and self-worth. 

God will have no other gods before Him, because He is the only One True Living God!  He knows that bowing down to any other god - including our own strength - will leave us wanting, miserable, or a nervous wreck.

God simply wants to be God in our lives!  He knows He is God!  But He wants us to keep Him as our God, because he knows that all other "gods" will fail us, either immediately or eventually.

It is His huge love for us that wants the best for us!  He knows that when we rely on His strength and power in life that we will be able to truly live a life pleasing to Him.  "We are weak but He is strong."  It's not just a children's song, it is for all children of God!

How about you?  Tired of trying to hold it all together in your own strength?  Admitting that you are weak is actually a sign of strength.  It is brilliant because you recognize that there is One whose strength can empower you like nothing or no one else ever could. 

So the paradox is that when you admit you are weak, and you look to God and His strength, you become stronger than ever!  How?  Because His power then lives in you.  Why would you settle for anything less?

Dear Lord, thank You that I can have and know true power when I submit to and look to You as my Source of strength.  Keep me weak in self and strong in You, oh God.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.