Be Strong

Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
— 2 Corinthians 13:11

And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.
— Ephesians 1:19

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.
— Ephesians 3:16

And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
— Deuteronomy 20:3-4

An Amplification of the Direction, “And in the Power of His Might”, by William Gurnall. The following contains an excerpt from his work, “Be Strong in the Lord.”

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
— Eph. 6:10

Branch Fourth

An Amplification of the Direction ‘And in the power of his might.’

In this branch, we have an encouraging amplification annexed to the exhortation in these words: “and in the power of his might,” where a twofold inquiry is requisite for the explication of the phrase. First, what do these words import,”the power of his might”? Second, what does it mean to “be strong in the power of his might”?

First. What do these words import,”the power of his might”? It is a Hebraism and imports nothing but his mighty power, like that phrase,”to the praise of the glory of his grace,” Eph. 1:6, that is, to the praise of his glorious grace. And his mighty power imports no less than his almighty power; sometimes the Lord is styled “strong and mighty,” Ps. 24:8, sometimes “most mighty,” sometimes “almighty.” No less is meant in all than God’s infinite almighty power.

Second. What does it mean to “be strong in the power of his might”? To be strong in the power of the Lord’s might implies two acts of faith. First, a settled firm persuasion that the Lord is almighty in power. “Be strong in the power of his might,” that is, be strongly rooted in your faith concerning this one foundational truth, that God is almighty. Second, it implies a further act of faith, not only to believe that God is almighty but also that this almighty power of God is engaged for its defence; so as to bear up in the midst of all trials and temptations undauntedly, leaning on the arm of God Almighty, as if it were his own strength. For that is the apostle’s drift: as to beat us off from leaning on our own strength, so to encourage the Christian to make use of God’s almighty power as freely as if it were his own whenever assaulted by Satan in any kind. As a man set upon by a thief stirs up all the force and strength he has in his whole body to defend himself and offend his adversary, so the apostle bids the Christian “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might,” that is, Soul, away to your God, whose mighty power is all intended and devoted by God himself for your succour and defence. Go, strengthen and entrench yourself in it by a steadfast faith, as that which shall be laid out to the utmost for your good.

From whence these two notes or doctrines, I conceive, will draw out the fatness of the words.

Doctrine First. It should be the Christian’s great care and endeavour in all temptations and trials to strengthen his faith in the almighty power of God.

Doctrine Second. The Christian’s duty and care is not only to believe that God is almighty but strongly by faith to rest on this almighty power of God, as engaged for his help and succour in all his trials and temptations.

Of Acting Our Faith on the Almighty Power of God

Doctrine First. It should be the Christian’s great care in all temptations and trials to strengthen his faith in the almighty power of God. When God holds forth himself as an object of the soul’s trust and confidence in any great strait or undertaking, commonly this attribute of his almighty power is presented in the promise as the surest holdfast for faith to lay hold on. As a father in a rugged way gives his child his arm to lay hold of, so does God usually reach forth his almighty power for his saints to exercise their faith on, as He did for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose faith God tried above most of his saints before or since. For not one of those great things which were promised to them did they live to see performed in their days. And how does God make himself known to them for their support, but by displaying this attribute? “I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty,” Ex. 6:3. This was all they had to keep house with all their days: with which they lived comfortably and died triumphantly, bequeathing the promise to their children, not doubting, because God Almighty had promised, of the performance.

Thus, in Isaiah 26, where great mercies are promised to Judah, and a song penned beforehand to be sung on that gaudy day of their salvation; yet because there was a sharp winter of captivity to come between the promise and the springtime of the promise, therefore, to keep their faith alive in this space, the prophet calls them up to act their faith on God Almighty. “Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength,” Isa. 26:4. So when his saints are going to the furnace of persecution, what now does he direct their faith to carry to prison, to stake, with them but this almighty power? “Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator,” 1 Pet. 4:19. Creator is a name of almighty power; we shall now give some reasons for the point.

Reason First

Because it is no easy work to make use of this truth, however plain and clear it now appears, in great plunges of temptation, that God is almighty. To vindicate this name of God from those evil reports which Satan and carnal reason raise against it requires a strong faith indeed. I confess this principle is a piece of natural divinity. That light which finds out a Deity will evince, if followed closely, this God to be almighty; yet in a carnal heart, it is like a rusty sword, hardly drawn out of the scabbard, and so of little or no use. Such truths are so imprisoned in natural conscience that they seldom get a fair hearing in the sinner’s bosom until God gives them a jail-delivery and brings them out of their house of bondage, where they are shut up in unrighteousness with a high hand of his convincing Spirit. Then, and not until then, the soul will believe that God is holy, merciful, almighty. Some of God’s peculiar people, and not the least for grace among them, have had their faith for a time set in this slough, with much ado to get over these difficulties and improbabilities which sense and reason have objected, so as to rely on the almighty power of God, with a notwithstanding. Moses himself, a star of the first magnitude for grace, yet see how his faith blinks and twinkles till he wades out of the temptation: “The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them?” Num. 11:21-22. This holy man had lost sight for a time of the almighty power of God, and now he is projecting how this should be done; as if he had said in plain terms, How can this be accomplished? For so God interprets his reasoning: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord’s hand waxed short?” ver. 23. So Mary, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,” John 11:32. And her sister Martha,”Lord, by this time he stinketh,” ver. 39. Both gracious women, yet both betrayed the weakness of their faith in the almighty power of Christ; one limiting him to place—”if thou hadst been here,” he had not died; as if Christ could not have saved his life absent as well as present—sent his health to him as well as brought it with him; the other to time—”now he stinketh;” as if Christ had brought his physic too late, and the grave would not deliver up its prisoner at Christ’s command. And you have such a high opinion of yourself, Christian, that your faith needs not your utmost care and endeavour for further establishment on the almighty power of God, when you see such as these dash their foot against this kind of temptation?

Reason Second

The second reason may be taken from the absolute necessity of this act of faith above others to support the Christian in the hour of temptation. All the Christian’s strength and comfort is fetched without doors, and he has none to send on his errand but faith; this goes to heaven and knocks God up, as he in the parable his neighbour at midnight for bread: therefore, when faith fails, and the soul has none to go to market for supplies, there must needs be a poor house kept in the meantime. Now faith is never quite laid up until the soul denies, or at least questions, the power of God. Indeed, when the Christian disputes the will of God, whispering within its own bosom, will he pardon? will he save? this may make faith go haltingly to the throne of grace, but not knock the soul off from seeking the face of God. Even then faith in the power of God will bear it company thither: “If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean;” if thou wilt, thou canst pardon, thou canst purge. But when the soul concludes he cannot pardon, cannot save, this shoots faith to the heart, so that the soul falls at the foot of Satan, not able more to resist; now it grows more listless to duty, indifferent whether it prays or not, as one who sees the well dry breaks or throws away his pitcher.

Reason Third

Because God is very tender of this flower of his crown, this part of his name: indeed, we cannot spell it right and leave out this letter, for that is God’s name, whereby he is known by all his creatures. Now man may be called wise, merciful, mighty: God only, all-wise, all merciful, almighty; so that when we leave out this syllable “all,” we nickname God, and call him by his creature’s name, which he will not answer to. Now the tenderness that God shows to this prerogative of his appears in three particulars:

1. In the strict command he lays on his people to give him the glory of his power. “Neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid,” but “sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,” Isa. 8:12-13; that is, in this sad posture of your affairs, when your enemies associate, and you seem a lost people to the eye of reason, not able to contest with those united powers which beset you on every side, I charge you, sanctify me by giving me the glory of my almighty power. Believe that your God is able of himself, without any other, to defend you and destroy them.

2. In his severity to his dearest children when they stagger in their faith, and come not off roundly, without reasoning and disputing the case, to rely on his almighty power. Zacharias did but ask the angel,”Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years?” yet for betraying therein his unbelief, he had a sign indeed given him, but such a one as did not only strengthen his faith but severely punish his unbelief, for he was struck dumb upon the place. God loves his children to believe his word, not dispute his power; so true is that of Luther: “God loves the obedient, not the cavilling.” That which gave accent to Abraham’s faith was that he was “fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform,” Rom. 4:21.

3. In the way God takes of giving his choicest mercies and greatest salvations to his people, wherein he lays the scene of his providence, so that when he has done, it may be said, Almighty power was here. And therefore, God commonly puts down those means and second causes, which if they stood about his work would blind and hinder the full prospect thereof in effecting the same. “We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead,” 2 Cor. 1:9. Christ stayed until Lazarus was dead, that he might draw the eyes of their faith more singly to look on his power, by raising his dead friend, rather than curing him being sick, which would not have carried so full a conviction of almightiness with it. Yes, he suffers a contrary power many times to arise, in that very juncture of time when he intends the mercy to his people, that he may rear up a more magnificent pillar of remembrance to his own power, in the ruin of that which contests with him. Had God brought Israel out of Egypt in the time of those kings which knew Joseph, most likely they might have had a friendly departure and an easy deliverance, but God reserves this for the reign of that proud Pharaoh, who shall cruelly oppress them and venture his kingdom, but will satisfy his lust upon them. And why must this be the time, but that God would bring them forth with a stretched-out arm? The magnifying of his power was God’s great design. “In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth,” Ex. 9:16.

4. In the prevalency which an argument pressed from his almighty power has with God. It was the last string Moses had to his bow when he begged the life of Israel: “The nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the Lord was not able,” etc., Num. 14:15-16. And “Let the power of my Lord be great,” ver. 17; and with this, he had their pardon thrown to him.

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