strength

A few days ago one of my favorite songs came on the radio, "strong enough" by Matthew West. It got me thinking about being weak, being strong & being consider each way by others. Definitions for strong & weak are not easy to pin down & because of biblical reality that contradicts normal view I'm going to avoid explicit definition.
What I've been thinking about though is that people always want to be strong. Try to find strength in position or money or fame or self, relationships, successes, etc. Problem is, all those things fade. I've done some great things in my young life but if I drew my strength from any of them I'd be as weak & frail as anything that's....well dead.
Maybe that it, the dead want to find strength wherever they can so that can feel alive. Life is only available through Jesus. There's a lot of division about what a Christian actually is & even within the realm of the legitimate Church there is a lot of division over minor doctrines but Jesus is the same in each fracture. Unfortunately He doesn't serve to be enough for complete unity to happen. HE IS. But we don't allow it to happen. But I'm sidetracking, one of the aspects of a true believer is that they draw strength from HIM. Find comfort FROM & IN HIM. REFUGE. HOPE. LIFE.
JESUS is EVERYTHING WE NEED.
So what's the point, I'm stating stuff that any church kid could but, in my opinion, the core values, the cliches, need to be stated even more because we've lost it. The message of the church in America is so often dictated by the latest fad of hollywood or news from NYC. We're trying to put out fires, instead of shining the brighter light. & we get weak, cuz so often it's in our own strength. godly endeavors, but from our own ambition or sense of.....entitlement....no....duty, maybe. idk.
If we actually just kept Jesus at the center of everything, never deviating, refusing to sin, listening to His Spirit, then we would be an unstoppable force. Revival happens when that HE is there. Lives are changed when HE is there. the "strong" are made strong & become "weak"
So to hell with perception & idols & striving in our own strength. We need Jesus. I need Jesus, cuz I'm not strong enough.
I just listened to the song again & was reminded of one point. When we get beat down, tired & feel SO weak it's so easy to blame God. A child dies. A divorce happens. A friend lies. A job ends. A notice comes at the worst time. We want to curse God & do it ourselves. but the question I have for that is, do you praise Him when the good things happen? I'm not at all encouraging cursing at God but so often He's ignored & then He's cursed. But bad stuff happens in life. It sucks but it happens. Its not always God's direct intervention but He knows about it & he wants to make you & me stronger through those events.
I liken it to an athlete. When they want to be better, stronger they have to push harder, add weight or resistance. Why is it any different in real life? God wants us to be strong, mature not infants our whole lives. So absolutely praise Him when things are good & great but just as much or MORE when they absolutely positively could not seem worse. By standing up under the weight, in the storm, you will get stronger. It won't be instantaneous or easy but it will be good & will produce the best fruit in the future.