¹² Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Slumped shoulders and wobbly knees might be an apt present day rendering to our passage today. Sometimes the Christian life with its struggles and trials can leave a person discouraged and easy prey for falling by the wayside. There are times when the temptation to give up and give in seems the easiest thing to do. Such times are forks in the road, and we must decide which way to go. We know the way but we must work up the will power to strengthen ourselves to make the right choice.

Notice the passage does not say that we should pray to God to strengthen us. How does this square with other passages that tell us, for example, that, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13)? Does God save us by His efforts alone but now we are to walk the Christian life in our own efforts? There are a number of things we can say about this.

First, any efforts we make must always be in concert with what God is doing. Notice in Phil 4:13, the subject of the effort is “I”. It is “I” who “does all things.” Yet, that “I” is intricately connected with Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal 2:20). So any efforts we make to strengthen ourselves is connected with Christ’s working in us. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:25 NIV). Strengthening ourselves is a coordinated effort between God and us.

Second, I still need to make the effort to do something. I still need to resolve, to take initiative. I cannot sit back passively like a spiritually inanimate object. As a Christian, I am alive in Christ, so I must take an active role in strengthening myself.

Third, in the context of this passage, strength comes when we fully accept our circumstances as God’s discipline in drawing us further into “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (vs. 11). This is in order to share more fully in His holiness (vs. 10), to see our trials and difficulties as coming from the hand of a loving Father who is at work for our good and not the result of some arbitrary happenstance, either by a vindictive, uncaring god or devil, or evilness of men. All is used by the One who loves us and disciplines us for our spiritual growth.

Lord, I accept the circumstances of my life as Your program for developing Christlikeness in me. Embracing this truth gives me strength to endure.