Strengthened By The Spirit

“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;” (Eph 3:16 AV)

 

This verse was very special to me and answered a very personal question I had.  Not to ignore the context, but there are many things we can use to strengthen the inner man.  There are many devices afforded us.  In the whole scope of the thing, these things are not wrong in and of themselves.  There is a time and place for them.  But as helpful as these things might be, they cannot take the place of the Holy Spirit.  There are proper applications for them.   They may not be appropriate for every occasion.  They may be those things that the Holy Spirit uses to strengthen the inner man.  But they are not for every time the inner man needs strengthening.  If used too frequently or out of place, these good things can actually hinder the strengthening process.  The source of our strength must be the Holy Spirit first and foremost.

I really like my doctor.  He takes the time to explain his advice.  As I age, my physical challenges become more and more.  As do most people.  One of those challenges is decreased kidney function.  At one time, I was on high blood pressure medicine for an unrelated condition.  A lower than normal blood pressure was good for my cognitive function.  However, having abnormally lower blood pressure can harm the kidneys. so we discontinued this medication.  One of the benefits of this medicine was a wonderful night’s sleep.  Coming off this medicine, the doctor gave me other suggestions as to how I might be able to increase quality sleep time.  One of those suggestions was more rigorous exercise.  The more I exercised, the more my body would require rest and the deeper I would sleep.  As hard as that is, he suggested something far more difficult.  Give up caffeine.  The more caffeine you drink, the more dehydrated you become.  This was reflected in my last lab work.  Twice in the last three tests, I tested as dehydrated.  This is not good.  Dehydration can also affect kidney damage.  So, now I have a conundrum.  Do I eliminate or cut back all caffeine and rely on the Holy Spirit to wake me up?  Or, do I continue to do something I know is not good for me in order to get me going in the morning?

Our passage above is both a challenge and an encouragement.  It is a challenge to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit more than we do anything or anyone else.  But it is also an encouragement.  This encouragement teaches that if we cannot handle life or the things that life brings our way, God has given His Spirit to make sure we grow through it all.  The inner man takes an awful lot of hits.  The inner man is drained to almost nothing each and every day.  The inner man suffers loss from the many duties and trials required of it.  The inner man needs to be renewed day by day.  If the greatest of all Apostles needed to be renewed each day, how much more the weaker of us?  So, herein is the encouragement.  When we are weak and do not think we can go any further, the Holy Spirit which indwells you will strengthen you so that you might be able to finish your course with strength to spare.  If we simply pray to the Father and Spirit for the strength needed for today, then He will grant it.  He is always there to bare us up when we cannot continue to go on.