“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” 1 Peter 5:10
We have been looking at what it means to be strengthened, as Christ was strengthened, in order to accomplish the Father’s will. As Jesus cried out to the Father, “Not My will but Yours be done”, an angel from heaven appeared to Him strengthening Him. (Luke 22:42-43) At that point the severity of the trial did not get any better but rather it grew decidedly worse. To use a metaphor from the book of Daniel, ‘the furnace was heated seven times hotter’. (Dan 3:19) Jesus was strengthened all the way through His suffering, until He said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) Likewise as we join with Christ in His sufferings, we can be confident of being strengthened by the God of all grace, to walk with Christ in His will to do the Father’s will.
Because the apostle Paul learnt to identify with Christ in His sufferings, he also learnt to identify in His strengthening. Paul writes of a time when, in doing the Lord’s work, he was being vigorously opposed and many evil deeds were being done against him. This was an extremely difficult time for him. He goes on to say, “At my first defence no one supported me, but all deserted me; (just like Jesus) may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was rescued out of the mouth of the lion.” (2Tim 4:16-17)
Again Paul 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) All of us are to be put into service! Have you allowed yourself to be put into service? If so, can you identify that service and are you faithful and fruitful in the service that the Lord has put you into? The Lord stood with Paul and strengthened him so that the service of work He had given him to do would be fully accomplished. Peter says, “Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies.” (1Pet 4:11) It is only the strength which God supplies that will sustain us through the fiery trial and see His work fully accomplished.