“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.” – 2Thessalonians 2:17
Do you realise that God has a good work and word for you to personally accomplish. Paul understood, that salvation for him was to be put into service for Jesus Christ. He writes and says, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me because He considered me faithful, putting me into service.” (1Tim 1:12) When Jesus was strengthened in the garden He was not just being bolstered in the reserves of His own capacity. Rather he was receiving the Father’s enabling to fully accomplish the Father’s will. (Luke 22:43)
Many times in our lives, our first reaction to a work or word has been, ‘I can’t do it’. Sometimes the ‘I can’t do it’ is a disguise or cover for ‘I don’t want to do it’. I say sometimes because it is not always. There are times when we genuinely want to do what’s been required of us in our service and work for the Lord.
But immediately we feel an inadequacy within ourselves, a weakness that says, ‘I don’t think I can do it’. (2Cor 3:4-5) What does a disciple of Christ do at this point? As we submit our will to God, to join Christ in His prayer meeting in the garden, where we resolve to do nothing but the Fathers’ will, then, like Christ, we are enabled by the strength which God supplies. (1Pet 4:11)
We are going to feel weak many times. I encourage you to get used to feeling weak. Don’t despise it. Because it is in weakness that His strength is made perfect, so that the glory is not of ourselves but is of Him. (2Cor 12:9) The fulfilling of God’s will does not depend on our strength but it depends on our obedience to His word. It does not depend on whether you think you can do it or not. If God has asked you to do it, He will enable you.
Like Jesus, Paul knew a supernatural strengthening that, despite every weakness, enabled him to fully accomplish the service of work that God had appointed him to do. (2Tim 4:16-17) If God appoints a load to you, and He has for everyone, then He gives you the daily strength to carry that load.