“Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness”
Colossians 1:11
Praise God for all that He has been showing us from Colossians 1! There is so much of the will and heart of God expressed in this passage of Scripture. Our verse for today comes in the middle of a powerful prayer for the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse. The verse before our one for today is a prayer for us to walk worthy of the Lord, be fruitful in every good work and increase in the knowledge of God.
You may be wondering how could I ever walk worthy of the Lord and be fruitful in every good work? Perhaps you have experienced failures in your Christian life that have discouraged you and no matter how hard you have tried you have found yourself completely incapable of walking “worthy of the Lord”. Maybe it has led you to ask the question: is it even possible for me to live the Christian life? The answer to this anguished question is actually “no”. In the power of our flesh you and I are incapable of living and walking in the way the Lord has called us to live and walk.
In light of this Is there any hope of us ever “walking worthy of the Lord”? Yes, there is hope but it is not found by us reaching deep into our own pockets to try to muster up the strength to live the Christian life. The true hope that we have of walking the way God wants is found in our verse today. It is through being strengthened with ALL might according to HIS glorious power. What a precious word for today that God is able and willing to strengthen us with all might but this might He strengthens us with is not according to our flesh it is according to His glorious power.
Many times in Scripture God is referred to as Almighty. In other words He is the God of not just some might or a lot of might, He is the God of ALL might. He is only able to strengthen us with all might because He is almighty. Our ability to walk in accordance with the will of God is only through the almighty God living in and through us and working in us according to His glorious power!
We may think that God strengthening us with all might means that we don’t have to go through trials and difficulties but actually it means the opposite. This Scripture says that God strengthens us with all might unto all patience and longsuffering. James 1:3 reads: “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” As we walk through trials and difficulties God is able to work His patience in us.
We should not think of the fiery trials that we walk through as something strange happening to us rather we should receive them with thanksgiving knowing that God will strengthen us with all might to walk through these trials and He will form the life of His Son in us through them. So when we face trials and difficulties is the answer just to grit our teeth and make in through? The last part of our verse for today has a critical phrase in it: “with joyfulness”. God does not want us to just “make it through” the trails in our life He wants us to be filled to overflowing with His joyfulness as we walk through hard times.
This is so contrary to our natural response to suffering that the only way we can live in the reality of the Lord’s joy in the midst of trial is if the Lord strengthens us will all might according to His glorious power which is exactly what He has done for us in Christ. Praise God! I believe it is critical for us as believers to be grounded in these vital truths as we look at the challenges we will likely be facing in the coming days.
May the Almighty God strengthen all of us according to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness come whatever may!
-Gabriel C
Today is Feb. 11 so I am meditating on Col. 1:11.
I wondered why it uses both the words long suffering and patience. I found that patience, hupomone, means to bear up under difficult circumstances. Longsuffering, makrothumia, means to have patient endurance when people attack or make our lives difficult.
Paul wants to make sure that we have God’s strength for both difficult circumstances and difficult people.