Strength
A friend emailed me and asked “Just wondering where you get your strength from?” I have been pondering how to answer him for a few days now …
The term “my strength” is ineresting to me. Indeed, I feel strengthened, but it isn’t my strength at all. When I consider doing this alone, or truly in my own strength, I know I couldn’t be making the good choices and finding the peace in that. Strength from the Lord is really interesting that way. It’s for us, but it’s not ours.
My first response to where my strength comes from is obedience. But it’s not just obedience, because I know many who obey but are miserable and stay that way for years. I think it’s obedience coupled with the proper attitude, prayer, and seeking the spirit.
By obedience with proper attitude, I mean obedience because it’s the right thing to do, as opposed to obedience to gain reward. I think there is always an aspect of being obedient to feel the spirit, to feel joy in righteousness, but obedience to please others, for example, is misplaced. Sometimes when obedience can’t be just because it’s right, praying for that motivation until it’s in place is key.
Prayer itself is key. Praying to understanding, praying to have our heart changed, praying to feel the spirit … Non-stop if need be. Pray to understand until we understand. Pray to have our heart changed until it’s changed. Pray to feel the spirit until we are feeling it. Pray to want to pray.
Seeking the spirit has been a joy for me in my struggles and has given me great strength. There’s a young man in the ward who was preparing to go on a mission and the bishop asked him if he had any spiritual experiences he could recount. When he said he did not, the bishop told him he’d be ready to serve a mission when he had some. He was told to start looking for spiritual experiences. The young man reported a few weeks ago that he has spiritual experiences all the time now, and they were always there. He just didn’t notice them before. Through this change in perception, and choice to notice, he became spiritually minded, and thus ready to serve. Becoming spiritually minded is a strength to me.
After these last few days of pondering this, I think it comes down to a few things, but at the same time, so much more. To start, though, strength for me comes from obedience, humble attitude, fervent constant prayer, seeking and feeling the spirit many times during my day, and thus becoming spiritually minded.
And always acknowledging that the strength is the Lord’s.
- Kim
