SEPTEMBER 21, Ephesians 3:16

In school, 10-year old James has no Christian fellowship as he is the only believer in class. He does not read his Bible regularly and a group of bullies makes him do terrible things.This includes pulling clothes of younger students, pushing the smaller children around and even demanding for their school allowances. They threaten victims and warn them not to report to teachers. James does what he knows to be wrong. Why is that? It is because he is not strong enough spiritually.

We are to learn from the negative example of James to have inner strength based on God. As Christians, we are to be strengthened in our soul by the Holy Spirit. That means from our consistent fellowship with God, our daily reading of the Bible, we would be able to know the right thing and more importantly, to dare to do it! One who has received the Lord Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit inside him to make him to be what he is. This is the prayer of Paul for the Ephesian Christians. Paul prayed that they might be ‘strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man’. Are you like James?

In the Old Testament, there was such a man who was being mocked. Not just him alone, but his whole family was being mocked by relatives, neighbors and friends, and even strangers. They were being looked upon with sarcastic eyes, jeered at and all thought they had gone mad. This man and his wife, together with their three sons and three daughters-in-law, were building a big boat. Who was this man? What were the names of his sons? Answer:                                   ,                    ,                              . God had instructed them to build the boat because sometime in future, he would pour lots and lots of rain to flood the entire earth.The people on earth had turned wicked, that was why God would destroy the world, except those in the boat. The man had preached to the people about the coming disaster but it had fallen on deaf ears. They had not seen a single drop of water falling from the sky and thus would not believe him but instead ridiculed him. He knew in his heart that what he did was right and God would be true to his word, and so he would not be moved. He was strong in the inner man.

Thought: When was the last time you were weak in the inner man? How can you be strong in the inner man?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, there are times I am being tested, help me be strong in the inner man. May the Holy Spirit strengthen me with might in the inner man. This is my humble cry, in Jesus’ name, Amen.