Where to get inner strength?
I hope your week was a good and productive one, and you had strength to endure various problems, overcome obstacles and handle some unexpected unpleasant surprises that life throws at us sometimes.:)
Talking about strength, I hear a lot people saying that I am strong, and they ask me where from I get that strength and endurance to go through all the physical and emotional pain, and to do things that I do. Yes, pain and difficulties tested me and made me only stronger. I know, character and personality has a lot to do with it. And I will agree I am stubborn.:) My Mom used to complain about my stubbornness :), but really stubbornness is one of those qualities that helped me to get through the most challenging times. But you know what is my real source of strength? God is my strength. Prayer and faith – this is my source of strength and driving force. I know, this might not sound “serious” to you or “religious stuff” :), I am sure you have heard numerous times about it, and maybe really what you would like to hear is something concrete and tangible.
As strange as it might seem to you, faith is much more than a good job, friends or money. All of you know that people or any beneficial contacts might betray you. One day they can seem to be your best friend and even promise to love you and never leave you, but then another day they break their word and disappear from your life. Also, one day you have money, house or outstanding career, but it might be gone in a flash any day. From my experience I learned very well – one day you have it all, and the next day you might lose it all. But faith will never disappoint you. Yes, faith is not tangible and it is invisible. But it has an immense power and it can turn the impossible into possible. There is nothing more powerful than a prayer and faith in God.
We all are spiritual beings, and such qualities like inner strength is not based on material things or economic status. Material wealth might give you confidence, if that’s where you put your highest values (the problem with that is that you will lose the confidence if/when you lose the source of that material wealth). But have you experienced being well economically, but feeling sad, depressed and unhappy anyway? It’s what is within you makes a difference on how you feel. Jesus said once that if we drink the water that he gives, we will never be thirsty. He is the source of inner peace, strength and joy. While I was in the Intensive Care Unit on a verge of life and death, I had absolutely incredible experience, and I don’t just believe Jesus is alive in his Spirit. I know he is.
Faith is my strong foundation. It always gave me hope, and it gave me courage and strength to move forward no matter how desparate my situation was. It lifted me up when I fell down. It gave me inner strength to take another step when I felt exhausted. It helped me to move forward in life in spite of obstacles and difficulties that I had to face.I know sometimes it is not easy to trust God, who is invisible, because we human beings naturally rely on something that we can see, touch, feel and have confidence in. We tend to hope for help from supernatural power only when we cannot do anything to change our situation. Have you heard people saying “Well..now only God can help”? That’s exactly what taught me to seek God. I’ve been in such situations numerous times, and that’s when I had the biggest miracles happening in my life – when I put my trust in God, not on people or any resources.
You feel tired, deeply disappointed, worried, afraid or even desperate? I want to encourage you to try do the same. Be like a little child and seek God. Trust anyway. Try to seek for help and for inner strength in a prayer. Just close the door of your room… and talk to God. He always answers to those, who seek him with all their heart.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV)
