Getting a strong heart

[FrankLee]

It is the Lord that strengthens us to go forward. The strength of God takes up where man's strength shivers and falls when it has been exhausted to the uttermost.

If you have the strength of heart from God then anything is possible to you. The reverse is also true. In my own life this is a particularly strange and hard season. Facing things that have never come before causes me to cling to Jesus more than I ever have. I trust Him and refuse to be afraid, He's brought my wife and I through way too many things. I can really do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me. Let us pray for each other seeing we are here such a fleeting time. During the course of your life you will come to walk in places that are so foreign to you. God leads us through these places and we really are strangers in a strange land. Time and again I am reminded in hard places that I am never really as close to Jesus as I need or want to be.

There are so many wonderful scriptures on strength and I have not shown nearly all of them. Every day I send scriptures to others. Everyone needs the encouragement of God's word.

Exodus 13:14 (NKJV) So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' that you shall say to him, 'By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Exodus 15:2 (NKJV) The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him.

Exodus 15:2, 13 (NKJV)
2 The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him.
13 You in Your mercy have led forth The people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength To Your holy habitation.

Deuteronomy 3:28 (NKJV) But command Joshua, and encourage him and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you will see.'

Deuteronomy 33:25-27 (NKJV)
25 Your sandals shall be iron and bronze; As your days, so shall your strength be.
26 "There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, Who rides the heavens to help you, And in His excellency on the clouds.
27 The eternal God is your refuge, And underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, And will say, 'Destroy!'

Joshua 14:11 (NKJV) As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.

Judges 16:28 (NKJV) Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, "O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!"

1 Samuel 28:22 (NKJV) Now therefore, please, heed also the voice of your maidservant, and let me set a piece of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way."

1 Samuel 30:6 (NKJV) Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
2 Samuel 22:2-4 (NKJV)
2 And he said: "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
3 The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence.
4 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.


2 Samuel 22:3, 33, 40 (NKJV)
3 The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence.
33 God is my strength and power, And He makes my way perfect.
40 For You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose against me.


1 Chronicles 16:8-11 (NKJV)
8 Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!
9 Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works!
10 Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!
11 Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore!


1 Chronicles 16:11, 27-28 (NKJV)
11 Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore!
27 Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and gladness are in His place.
28 Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Give to the Lord glory and strength.

1 Chronicles 29:11-12 (NKJV)
11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all.
12 Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all.

Nehemiah 6:9 (NKJV) For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, "Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done." Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

Nehemiah 8:10 (NKJV) Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

Job 4:3-4 (NKJV)
3 Surely you have instructed many, And you have strengthened weak hands.
4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, And you have strengthened the feeble knees;

Job 9:4 (NKJV) God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?

Job 12:13, 16 (NKJV)
13 "With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding.
16 With Him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the deceiver are His.

Psalms 18:1-2, 32, 39 (NKJV)
1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said: I will love You, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
32 It is God who arms me with strength, And makes my way perfect.
39 For You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.


Psalms 19:14 (NKJV) Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Psalms 20:2, 6 (NKJV)
2 May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion;
6 Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand.

 

[Peter Luke]

Nice thread.

Sometimes my heart gets strengthened from tough-love. Once I prayed, every morning for at least four months, for patience. Everyday at work I got ridiculed. Then as I was about to do my usual prayer in the morning, I realized I was not getting any patience, so impatiently in my prayer I said: "Lord, I've been praying for patience for four months now, and all I get is ridicule, day in day out, so what's going on?" Suddenly, quite load and clear in my head I heard "How else are you going to learn!" I was shocked to hear that, because I don't hear voices in my head, but that was so profound. Also I realized that one simply does not get patience, but one needs to use their faith in practicing humility. From that morning on, the ridicule at work suddenly stopped.

 

[FrankLee]

This about patience. It's a stair step in our journey.



Patience is only one step in the series.
1. First we have the trouble. Naturally! It always involves waiting.
2. Waiting involves patience. We don't want it but it comes as part of the process. We are waiting on God's deliverance, His answer.
3. Experience comes only after repetition of something. We have trouble, we pray, we wait trying to be patient and we see God send help, deliverance. We experience the the cycle of trouble, waiting, deliverance. Again and again.
4. Hope. After going through many things and seeing many prayers answered time and again we have hope in God. Seeing that we are not destroyed. That it's not the end, we have hope when trouble comes that Jesus will again help us. Bring us through.
5. The love of God carries us through. We are not ashamed that we believe.

When I was 19 my horse fell and rolled on me and broke my leg. Sounded like someone broke a broom stick my dad said. I had to have a steel rod implanted in my left leg three weeks after I thought I was already healing up. I sat for three weeks for no purpose. The set break slipped and into surgery I went to start all over. A cast went from my foot all the way to my hip. No car. No job. Very few friends. I had to learn patience against my will. I recall sitting in a wheelchair watching the highway traffic through the big window in my father's house. I didn't want any patience I wanted to walk. It came but after the better part of a year before the pain and extreme limp went away. I wasn't a Christian then and couldn't draw from God's strength. Even so interruptions are divine instructions and God saw me as already His knowing I'd decide to follow Him in due time. I grew up during that year and afterwards put away many of the childish things that had interested me before. Trouble indeed works patience and maturity.

God didn't order that episode but I did learn from it. Through much tribulation we enter unto the kingdom of God.

Acts 14:22 KJVS
Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

We are apt to climb these stairs steps of faith many times in our journey. There is a reward if we don't faint, give up.

Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
Revelation 3:10 ESV

 

[Peter Luke]

Thank you FrankLee.