5 Weaknesses You Need Help With to Be Strong in the Lord
Just like any predator would do, Satan spends his time targeting the young, the sick and the lame who are existing in a weakened condition in their faith, which happens to every believer at some point. That is why you must be strong in the Lord, but if you are struggling and losing the fight of faith remember that dividing line between victory and defeat is in how you battle.
You can be strong in the Lord, even when you feel weak.
The enemy said to the Lord, he is roaming “to and fro” around the earth “seeking people to devour.” (Job 1:7 & 1 Peter 5:8) He has never made it a secret that he seeks to destroy you. How does he do that? By getting you to destroy yourself. You’re about to embark on a new season, so be prepared for the battles that come with taking new spiritual territory.
You’ll need to be strong in the Lord to breakthrough into victory, and worship is one of your most powerful weapons!
If You Want to be Strong in the Lord, Address Your Weaknesses
Even people with the strongest faith experience seasons of struggle, so there is never a point in time when you can let down your guard. The Lord stands guard with you (Psalm 139:5), but you must always:
- Guard your eyes. (Psalm 101:3)
- Guard your heart. (Psalm 19:14)
- Guard your anointing.
- Guard your marriage.
- Guard your reputation. (1 Thess. 5:22)
- Guard your home.
- Guard your children.
- Guard your mouth. (Psalm 141:3)
- Guard your spirit.
Satan is actively searching for the weak points in your faith because he wants to exploit them. God is actively searching for the weak points in your faith because He wants to expose them. God has strategies for your victory, but you must learn how to understand them – and use them!
Worship, the Word of God and a life of prayer are some ways to be strong in the Lord, and remaining in a community with other believers will help you with struggle as well, but another critically important way to find strength is to address WEAKNESS.
Satan is actively searching for the weak points in your faith because he wants to exploit them. God is actively searching for the weak points in your faith because He wants to expose them.
~Alicia Purdy
Isaiah wrote, “…those who wait upon theΒ LordΒ shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles,Β they shall run and not be weary,Β and they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:30-31)Β Whether you are weak or strong in the Lord, you will always be a target for the enemy, so at least be a moving target – those are much harder to capture!
Keep this in mind: A predator can try and take down its prey, but if the prey fights back hard enough, the predator will eventually go find an easier target. “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” James wrote. (James 4:7)
5 Ways to be Strong in the Lord Even When You Feel Weak
Walking in F.A.I.T.H. to Victory
As a person of faith, you must be strong in the Lord by being rooted in His Word. Communicate with Him in prayer. Keep your spirit connected to God’s through your ministry of worship. Don’t allow the enemy to exploit your areas of weakness, instead, let God reveal those weaknesses to you so He can strengthen them.
Here are 5 ways to be strong in the Lord by addressing areas of spiritual or emotional weakness where the enemy will try to attack your F-A-I-T-H:
F = FEAR
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) Fear is a natural, human response, but you serve a supernatural God! Fear is a spirit, the Bible is clear on this.
The spiritually opposing force to fear is three-fold: spiritual power, God’s supernatural love and the ability think clearly. Even if there is something to be afraid of in the natural, like a diagnosis or a terrible situation, there is a peace that goes beyond what you understand in the natural. (Philippians 4:7)
Get victory over vain imaginings and evil forebodings from the enemy. They are demonic and not of God. Remember, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears is not perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18) That “perfect love” is JESUS and He has overcome the world and its fears. (John 16:33)
When you are serving the Lord, fear is a choice. If you want to be strong in the Lord and break the power of fear in your life and on your mind, you must get into the presence of God in worship and stay there!
God has victory for you, but the enemy has set a trap to keep you caged into the “What If” scenarios. God lives in the future HE makes, not the ones you imagine. Find a Scripture and stand on it until the storm has passed! The Lord has an “IT IS WRITTEN” for your situation but you must stand firm on it until the battle is won.
A = ANGER
Anger makes a place for the devil, Paul wrote. (Ephesians 4:26-27) It’s okay to be angry, but there comes a point where that anger becomes sinful – when you hold on and refuse to let go; when it’s all you can think about; when your anger affects everything in your life. You may be justified in your anger. You may be on the right side of your anger.
God will never take what you won’t willingly give. You have to set anger aside by your own deliberate choosing with intention and determination and move ahead with your life.
~Alicia Purdy
You may be the true victim with every right to be angry, but if you want to be strong in the Lord move ahead, you must set anger aside “every weight and sin that so easily besets us,” (Hebrews 12:1).
God will never take what you won’t willingly give. You have to set anger aside by your own deliberate choosing with intention and determination and move ahead with your life. Out of all the ways to keep your faith strong in the Lord, addressing anger is at the top of the list. If anger has a grip on you, so does Satan.
I = IMMATURITY
“…by now you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of Godβs word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Heb. 5: 12-14 MEV)
Spiritual immaturity is okay for a baby and so is living off of a bottle, but if you’re not growing at a natural pace in your faith, you are disabled and the enemy would like nothing more than to snap you up.
There is a natural pace to becoming strong in the Lord and there is no excuse for spiritual ignorance or immaturity. Get into church, and a small group. Let your life – your strengths and your weaknesses – be known by other Christians. Only babies play hide-and-seek. It’s not easy, but it is for your spiritual benefit so you can be strong in the Lord! (Hebrews 10:24-25)
T = TIREDNESS
“I have had enough, Lord,” Elijah said. ‘Take my life’…then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.” (1 Kings 19:4) When you are spiritually, emotionally, mentally or physically exhausted, the enemy will come to try and attack you.
He will attack you with strongholds from your past like addiction, sexual sin, depression and all the other areas God won the victory. The enemy will try and convince you that you are still that same old person you once were. He will tempt you to sin and he will play tricks in your mind. He will try and get you to believe in coincidence and lies to convince you.
This is when faith is of the utmost importance. You cannot live by how you feel! (2 Corinthians 5:7) The best thing you can do to be strong in the Lord when you feel weak is worship. You won’t feel like it, and that is what makes worship a sacrifice that the Lord honors. God understands sacrifice better than anyone else, and when you present your body as a living sacrifice in worship, His strength becomes yours.
H = HURT
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds,” the Psalmist wrote, but it’s never that easy, is it? (Psalm 147:3) You are guaranteed troubles in this life. Jesus was very clear about that! (John 16:33) Sometimes those hurts and wounds are from things we’ve done to ourselves and sometimes they are from others. Sometimes those hurts are terrible and deep and painful and ugly and devastating and you are a truly innocent victim – but that does not mean you have to carry that label for the rest of your life.
Your trauma can become your testimony. Your hurt can become healing for another person’s healing if you allow God to take it and transform it.
~Alicia Purdy
Jesus Christ was also an innocent victim. (1 Peter 1:19) Jesus Christ can turn a victim into a victor, but if you insist on continuing to carry around the hurt – no matter how bad – you will never be as strong in the Lord as you need to be. You’ll always be walking with a limp in your faith. Your trauma can become your testimony. Your hurt can become healing for another person’s healing if you allow God to take it and transform it.
But Satan wants you to stay wounded. He wants you to see yourself as a victim. He wants you to remember what happened to you so he can keep you trapped in pain. Satan wants to keep you weak and limping so you can never bear the burden of another who needs help. God can and will heal you, but there is a road by which He will take you – only if you desire to go.
Thought for today: Be Strong in the Lord By Strengthening Your Spirit
The easiest targets are those who are losing their faith battles, succumbing to injuries and diseases like doubt, anxiety, pain, woundedness, unforgiveness, bitterness, fear impatience, anger, jealousy and more. Just like a predator perks up its ears at the sound of a wounded prey, so the enemy’s ears and eyes focused in on the Christians who are struggling.
He is listening for words of doubt, complaint and grievance, fear, rebellion, anger, bitterness carnality and the like. He can hear the desperate sounds of a young, lame or dying Christian from a great distance.
Stop giving your enemy tips, strategies and information about how to use your issues against you with how you speak. Speak the Word of God. Rearrange your life and your schedule to prioritize worshipping the Lord when things are bad with a heart of gratitude as though you’ve already won the battle, because you have! To be strong in the Lord, you will have to deny yourself – over and over and over.
Your battle is spiritual so your strength must be in the Spirit! Guard yourself with the Word, worship and prayer and fight with spiritual weapons if you want to win!
Discover more ways to strengthen your faith in God:
“The Violent Take it By Force and Refuse to Retreat”
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