True Strength

It amazes me how Jesus always points us to the Father ... with His words and by His actions the Son seems to constantly reveal His reliance on His Father. Consider this passage from the 19th chapter of John’s gospel ... Jesus is in a very weakened state ... he has been whipped, beaten and pierced with a thorny crown ... and is confronted once again by Pontius Pilate:

Pilate said, "You won't talk? Don't you know that I have the authority to pardon you, and the authority to--crucify you?" Jesus said, "You haven't a shred of authority over me except what has been given you from heaven.”

In the midst of suffering and pain Jesus shows us that He knows who He is and whose He is ... He gives us an example of a truly strong person.

How often I forget that everything in life ... pain and suffering in specific ... is filtered and sifted through our Father’s loving fingers. How I show myself as a truly weak person when I forget that God is in control ... when I look at my circumstances and forget that God is using them to make me like Jesus. It points to my desire to control and my resistance to yield to His sovereignty ... it points to the weakness of my heart.

Jesus, in His answer to Pilate, reveals to us a strong heart ... a heart connected to His Father. He shows us what it means to be strong in weakness. True strength has nothing to do with externals but has everything to do with internals. Strong externals often points to weak internals ... points to our desire to live from our heads and not from our hearts. Often it is only when we are faced with events that cannot be discerned with our heads that we are challenged to engage them with our hearts. Trusting God in hard times is an internal issue and often reveals our lack of true strength ... strength of the heart.