Connecting with God for a Strong Finish
Why and How to Connect with God and Others for Strength
Part 1: Why connect with God for strength
Be Strong in the Lord
When God speaks, strength, courage, and comfort follow. In a letter to the church at Corinth, Paul wrote,
“Everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort”. (1 Cor 14:3 NIV)
The word of the Lord imparts strength because it is “living and powerful” (Heb 4:12). Each message adds strength, inspires courage, and builds confidence. God’s word also conveys comfort by dispensing hope, healing, and consolation.
Connecting with Jesus Christ activates stellar power. He transforms mortal weaklings into shining stars. Blazing at millions of degrees for billions of years, stars surpass every spiritual analogy for fire, heat, and light. Our Sun burns 700 million tons of fuel per second. This thermonuclear word-picture illustrates the far-reaching and unquenchable influence of God’s people in action.
While incarcerated in an ancient prison, Paul wrote:
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars [phoster] in the universe as you hold out the word of life. (Phil 2:15-16 NIV)
Once we connect with Jesus, the Holy Spirit escorts us beyond the comfort zone of religious mediocrity. He leads us into hostile territory, with a commission to change the spiritual climate. Rather than reflecting our surroundings, we radiate light and release energy. Rather than dabbling in superficial religion, we activate supernatural resources to reach those ravaged by spiritual darkness.
Life is not hard to live―It’s impossible.
Without God’s Help.
Connecting with Jesus Christ enables us to live more abundantly, love more passionately, and influence more effectively. He seasons our personality with peace and flavors it with joy. He fuels our performance with perseverance and sustains it with patience. Life on earth offers more than a survival course for us to negotiate. It summons us with an eternal imperative enriched with a relational agenda. Knowing the truth about God empowers us to embrace His glory and encounter His goodness.
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:3)
“We cannot become what we need to be by remaining as we are.” (John Mason)
Jesus does not recommend crucifixion for everyone―He requires it. Connecting with God means dying to self, figuratively and sometimes literally. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34 ). Simply put and with a promise attached, He said,
“whoever loses his life for Me and for the gospel will find it.” (Mar 8:35)
Life comes packed in a finite container. Though elegant in design and sophisticated in function, the body we inhabit limits our mortal tenure. We are a breath in time situated in a biological organism. One heartbeat separates us from eternity.
Jesus did not come to help us say and do religion better. He came to connect us permanently with His passionate love. Our primary purpose in life is not task oriented; it is love oriented. Jesus redeemed us to participate in a divine romance, celebrating strong affections with everlasting parameters.
Loving God requires All our Strength
Properly understood, the love of God evokes an endearing response. His passion inspires us to reciprocate with ardent fascination. Instead of pandering to our weakness, Jesus brings the best out of us. His love focuses all our strength with favor, respect, and anticipation.
[Jesus] answered and said, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ …do this and you will live.” (Luk 10:27-28)
Connecting with Christ activates a royal calling with a universal mandate. It transforms idle spectators into ardent ambassadors. Jesus strengthens us so we might put His love into action. He wraps everlasting love around us, so we might wrap it around those poised to receive it.
Physics and Fruit
In 1905, a 27-year old patent clerk published the most famous equation in the world. Apparently, E=mc² is so simple and profound that Einstein wondered “whether the Lord is laughing at it and has played a trick on me.” According to Einstein’s theory, energy and mass are different forms of the same thing. His equation asserts their equivalence; it surmises that mass, whether solid, liquid, or gas, may be converted into energy, and energy may be converted into mass. Stars, atomic bombs, and nuclear power plants generate energy based on this illustrious equation.
“When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber”
(Sir Winston Churchill)
This world doesn’t need another sound bite echoing the party line. It needs a compelling and provocative message delivered with deep conviction. Paul reassured the church at Thessalonica that:
our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. (1 Thessalonians 1:5 NAS)
Unleashed from their constrained roost, prophetic messengers soar into heavenly realms where the word of life reverberates with clarity and distinction. Spiritual eagles proclaim an inherently powerful and eternally vital message. They connect with God to activate eternal connecting points for every person in every people group.
But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. (Isa 40:31)
Strength involves a combination of intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual components. It is a multifaceted concept. Strength specifically refers to the capacity for exertion or endurance. Technically, it represents the ability to produce a force. Power refers to the ability to produce an effect or influence. Dictionaries generally classify strength and power as synonyms. The two words are often used interchangeably. Energy denotes a related concept. It refers to the strength that can be transformed into action.
Part 2: How to connect with God for strength
Waiting, Resting, Rejoicing, Prayer, Food, and Exercise
Waiting for the Lord is an ongoing process sustained by faith, reinforced by hope, and enriched by love.
He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:29-31 NAS)
Jesus issued an unusual prayer request in preparation for “great tribulation”. He emphasized the severity of the situation by saying, “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” Planning for perilous times, “such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will,” Jesus prescribed prayer. He urged His disciples to “pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.”
Of all the prayers that Jesus might recommend for extreme tribulation, the season and the Sabbath topped His list. The focus of this prayer elevates the importance of the Sabbath beyond conventional wisdom or Jewish tradition. Apparently, observing the Sabbath remains an ongoing priority for Jesus. He considers it worthy of prayer and valued in practice until the end of the age.
Stopping to catch our breath allows our soul to catch up with our body in a sacred repose of being rather than doing. We remember the Sabbath by pondering its meaning and we observe the Sabbath by celebrating its significance.
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. …Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:1-2; 8 ESV)
We are not required to serve this day as a slave would serve its master. God gave us the Sabbath as a gift―it serves us with anticipated blessings and recurring benefits. Sabbath days offer protected time for rejuvenating our strength and reconnecting with God.
During a typical lifetime, each person averages about 8 hours of sleep each night. That equates to about one-third of our lifespan or 30 years of sleep for every 90 years of life. That’s a big chunk of time. It emphasizes the importance of sleeping
God organized our solar system with recurring periods of light and darkness to facilitate sleep. He designed everyone without exception, to participate in this daily rhythm. Sleep-wake cycles are more than a biological instinct―they accommodate a special love-gift from God. He gives sleep to those He loves.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows [of painful labors, NAS]; For so He gives His beloved sleep. (Psa 127:2 NKJ)
Gordon MacDonald forecast an epidemic of weariness and fatigue. Years before widespread use of the internet with social media, email, and cell phones, he wrote:
“The believing community has never been so busy, never had so many voices to listen to, never so many choices to make, never so many ways to respond [in 1987]. That, I believe, explains why we are facing the potential of a wholesale exhaustion of the spirit. To ignore that unique phenomenon is to invite spiritual disaster.”
MacDonald stressed that weariness, exhaustion, and fatigue are not a function of the body alone but of the spirit. In “Restoring Your Spiritual Passion”, he advocates rest as a remedy if it touches our inner spirit―where we connect with God. MacDonald uses the phrase “proper rest” since “much of what we call rest today is amusement or leisure, a temporary patch over weariness.” Rest that truly recuperates affects the core of our being.
Connecting with God activates strong feelings. He enriches our heart with love and sustains our faith with joy.
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy , for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Pet 1:8-9 NIV)
When the magi arrived in Bethlehem beneath an extraordinary sign, they “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy”. Before setting eyes on Jesus, joy erupted with elevated intensity. Pagan priests rejoiced at the sight of a prophetic sign, a bright star that pointed to Jesus. Luke used four separate words to describe this exceptionally passionate response: chairo, sphodra, megas, and chara.
From the beginning, God bound the destiny of the human race with food. Before Adam and Eve sinned, He established a clearly defined menu saying:
“I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food”. (Genesis 1:29 NIV)
One exception held dire consequences for Adam and Eve and their offspring. The Lord commanded:
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17 NIV)
Food consumed by Adam and Eve not only sustained their strength, it revealed their heart. The Bible emphasizes three words while describing their first act of rebellion: eat, eaten, and ate (used seventeen times in Genesis 3).
Adam and Eve tasted death because they consumed a forbidden fruit. Their heedless indulgence corrupted generations of descendants with inbred iniquity. It tainted their DNA with fatal genetic variants. Some variants predispose us to illness, disease, and death.
Jesus came to restore our life with renewed strength and vitality. He told His disciples:
“there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” (Mark 9:1 ESV; also Matthew 16:28, Luke 9:27 and John 8:52)
The name Jesus literally means Savior: He saved us from a fatal outcome with eternal consequences. We embrace God’s Kingdom and experience His power because Jesus replaced our heritable weakness with everlasting life. Jesus became sin so we might become His glorious bride adorned with exquisite virtue and enduring beauty.
Jesus appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos. During this exceptionally rare encounter, He detailed progress reports for seven churches in Asia Minor. For the church at Pergamon (also called Pergamum or Pergamos), He issued a strong reprimand involving food and sex. Jesus said:
“‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you [roasted on the Altar of Pergamon], where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. (Revelation 2:13-14 ESV)
The early church fought satanic battles involving two God-given appetites: food and sex. Since dietary and sexual restrictions “seemed good to the Holy Spirit”, church leaders required abstinence from food sacrificed to idols, from eating strangled animals or blood, and from sexual immorality. Luke, a trained physician, describes the consensus of a counsel in Jerusalem, which considered these issues.
From the beginning, God assumed the role of menu-maker for the human race. His earliest command came bundled with a carefully crafted meal plan. Specific terms governed Adam and Eve’s diet. Life and death hinged on their compliance. In contrast, God’s mandate to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” did not specify parameters for sexual behavior. The command to “subdue” and “rule” did not come with a moral code for justice. Nonetheless, eating a forbidden fruit earned the death penalty.
Our food supply was never a trivial issue with our Creator. At key season changes throughout history, He stipulated a new menu to facilitate progress in our relationship. Throughout the Bible, God’s commands have more to do with perfecting our love than perfecting our behavior.
but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him (1 John 2:5 ESV)
The rules may have changed but the objective remains the same―to draw us closer to Him.
For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. (Hebrews 7:18-19 ESV)
Jesus taught His disciples to pray using an inspired script. With concise talking points, He reveals a cluster of weaknesses dating back to the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve consumed a food that God had not provided. They ate banned fruit in a fatal quest for independence and self-determination. This defiant food-grab infected our gene pool with sin and death; it corrupted our judgement with a bent for evil.
Jesus taught His disciples to ask their Heavenly Father for daily bread, for forgiveness, for temptation-free guidance, and for deliverance. Each request counters a toxic vice inherited from Adam and Eve. As we pray the Lord’s Prayer, He activates a liberating do-over, which emancipates us from bondage.
Part 3: Sources of Strength
God, Angels, Demons, other People, and Technology
In one message, God communicates two truths—love and strength. When properly understood, these attributes complement one another since God imparts strength as an extension of His love.
One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving. (Psa 62:11-12a NIV)
