Continual Rather Than Spontaneous Strength

“Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.” (1Ch 16:11 AV)

That word ‘continually’ is striking!  Imagine.  We are to seek the LORD and His strength every waking moment of the day.  Most of us seek the strength of the LORD when we are all tapped out.  When we face overwhelming situations in life and we cannot face them in our own strength, then we seem to seek the strength that was always there.  We tend to wait until we are all depleted, then it occurs to us the LORD’s strength is what we need.  This limits what we can do for God and how much we can grow.  If we are seeking the strength of the LORD continually, rather than depending on our own, then God can accomplish so much more.

Whenever I seek a documentary on a massive building project, I am taken aback.  Especially if the project is a massive piece of equipment or section of infrastructure that will assume tremendous loads.  I think of bridges or massive construction equipment like the largest front-end loader.  This loader can lift 8 tons of material or 16,000 pounds.  This loader can lift material 272 feet in the air.  That is taller than Niagara Falls and almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty.  The diameter of the tires is 13 feet.  When I look at these machines, I cannot help but think how difficult it would be to service them.  If this machine got a flat tire, how hard would it be to change it out?  Not a small feat, I am sure.  When assembling one at the factory, what type of equipment is used?  How does the manufacturer lift the chassis onto the frame?  Having worked in a factory, I can imagine what it must be like.  There are overhead cranes.  There are massive pneumatic wrenches.  There are robotic booms and massive conveyor systems that all make it possible to assemble this massive loader.  There is probably specialized equipment used to change a flat.  The operator could use the bucket as a jack.  Yet, there has to be a crane system that loosens the lugs removes the damaged tire, and replaces it.  The point is, when dealing with something massive, the owner and operator must depend on something equally massive.

We have the strength of the LORD available at all times.  There is not a time when the strength of the LORD wanes.  Going through life trying to do some, if not most, of what is required in our own strength is simply foolish.  I know this, if a single man with hand tools tried to change out a tire on one of those loaders, he would hurt himself and never get the tire off.  This is what we do to ourselves.  We try to handle life on our own and end up causing far more damage in the process.  We are to continually seek His strength.  Not just when we think we need it.  It is a continual seeking.  It is a continual dependence.  It is a continual request.  How much different would our lives be if we lived in the strength of the LORD every waking moment of the day?

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