This verse is on every motivational poster in every athlete's locker room, and it makes me cringe. It's basically been turned into 'try harder with God's help.' Like God is your hype man making you stronger.
But Paul wrote this from prison. He's not writing about athletic performance or climbing the corporate ladder. He's writing about endurance through suffering, about doing the actual hard thing that's being asked of you - not the dramatic thing, the faithful thing.
I've had to apply this during my divorce. Not by pretending God would magically make it painless, but by actually showing up day after day, doing the difficult conversations, coparenting well even though I'm devastated, being kind when I don't feel like it. That's the strength Paul's talking about. Not the strength to conquer, but the strength to stay steady when everything is falling apart.
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