Over the years, when faced with difficult circumstances (especially our younger son’s health condition), people have told me to “be strong” or “hang in there.”  Many times, I have told myself to be strong!  However, I have not had any success simply willing myself to be strong.  This makes sense since the Bible tells us that “human strength can win no victories” (1 Samuel 2:9).  How, then, can we become strong?

Our strength comes from the Lord because “strength belongs to God” (Psalm 62:11).  In him “alone are saving justice and strength” (Isaiah 45:24).  We need to regularly remind ourselves of this truth, that the Lord is the one who gives us strength.  Like the Psalmist, we can each very personally and lovingly call on the Lord as “my strength” (Psalm 18:1; 28:7; 59:9, 17; 140:7).  Isaiah 41:10 beautifully says, “do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not be alarmed, for I am your God. I give you strength, truly I help you, truly I hold you firm with my saving right hand.”  

St. Paul also encourages us throughout his letters to rely on the Lord for strength (2 Thessalonians 3:3), and to thank God for the gift of his strength, which enables us to persevere:

• “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength” (1 Timothy 1:12); 

• “He will continue to give you strength till the very end” (1 Corinthians 1:8); and

• “There is nothing I cannot do in the One who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). 

Since strength belongs to God, the Word of God cautions us to “beware of thinking to [ourselves], ‘My own strength and the might of my own hand have given me the power to act like this.’  Remember the Lord your God; he was the one who gave you the strength to act effectively like this” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).  If the Lord makes us strong and we become proud, we will fall (Leviticus 26:19; 2 Chronicles 26:15-16).  “Guilty is he who makes his strength his god” (Habakkuk 1:11; see also Jeremiah 17:5).  Instead, we are called to remain humble like Jesus, who “emptied himself . . . even to accepting death, death on a cross.  And for this God raised him high, and gave him the name which is above all other names” (Philippians 2:7-9).

In humility, then, we will find that our strength comes as a gift from the Lord in various ways.  For example, the book of Isaiah says that our strength lays in serenity and trusting the Lord (Isaiah 30:15), while Romans 4:20 likewise reminds us that we draw strength from faith in God.  Spiritual gifts from the Lord are also a source of “lasting strength” (Romans 1:11), as is God’s grace.  “Take strength from the grace which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).  “It is better to rely on grace for inner strength than on food” (Hebrews 13:9).  

In his great love, the Lord even uses our weaknesses to make us strong.  St. Paul pleaded three times that the thorn in his flesh would leave him, but the Lord answered, “my grace is enough for you: for power is at full stretch in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).  Because the “power of Christ” rested upon him in his weaknesses, St. Paul was able to say, “it is when I am weak that I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).  When we are weak, weary, or powerless, the Lord will strengthen us; “those who hope in the Lord will regain their strength, they will sprout wings like eagles, though they run they will not grow weary, though they walk they will never tire” (Isaiah 40:29-31).  

Brothers and sisters, let us heed the Scripture’s call to “pray at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen” (Luke 21:36).  The book of Judith provides one example of a prayer for strength, “Lord God, to whom all strength belongs, prosper what my hands are now to do for the greater glory of Jerusalem . . . Make me strong today, Lord God” (Judith 13:4-7).  Let us also pray for one another that we each may be “fortified, in accordance with his glorious strength, with all power always to persevere and endure” (Colossians 1:11).

Therefore, when we tell ourselves or others to “be strong,” we should consider it as an encouragement to “grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of his power” (Ephesians 6:10).  To seek the Lord, his strength, and his presence continually (Psalm 105:4).  “Be strong, stand firm, have no fear . . . for the Lord your God is going with you; he will not fail you or desert you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).