Finding Strength For Your Struggle

by Gwen Smith | | 5 comments

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Moses faced complicated challenges and circumstances. Born in a time when he, as a Hebrew baby, was supposed to have been killed, Moses was saved by God’s sovereign grace when Pharaoh’s daughter pulled him from the Nile and kept him as her own.

A Hebrew among Egyptians, Moses was raised in a land and culture that was far removed from his heritage and from the One true God of Israel. You know this story! We saw it on the flannel graph boards in Sunday school as little girls. We watched Charlton Heston act it out in the movie The Ten Commandments. Moses had it all in the palace, lost it all when he murdered an Egyptian soldier, then eventually, risked it all for the holy God who called out to him and commissioned him from a flame.

Moses set out to free his people through the power of God. Though the Pharaoh doubted God’s strength, the Lord displayed His might, plague after plague, until finally it looked like Pharaoh got the memo. At last he let God’s people go. Moses and the Israelites left Egypt promptly and high-tailed it down the road of divine deliverance. But when Pharaoh changed his mind and gathered his army to chase them, the Israelites ran smack dab up against the Red Sea.

Major problem.

Not one to be hindered by impossibility, the Lord took care of business in a huge and powerful way. He parted and held back the Red Sea for Moses and the Israelites so they could escape destruction and experience deliverance. After His people crossed over safely, God again demonstrated His strength by sweeping the Pharaoh and his army into the sea, killing every last one of them (Exodus 13 and 14).

My goodness. What a story! What. A. God! If this doesn’t get you excited about the strength of God, I’m not quite sure what will!

“Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31).

Then a big ol’ party went down as Moses and the Israelites sang to the Lord a song that’s commonly referred to as the Song of Moses.

The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2)

In Exodus 15, Moses calls God his Strength and celebrates the power that brought salvation to his people.

The Bible reveals many names that highlight the power of our God; El Sali is a Hebrew name meaning “God of my Strength; God my Rock.”^[i] King David also calls God his Strength, El Sali, in Psalm 59:9: “O my Strength, I watch for you; you, O God, are my fortress.” Then again in verse 17, “O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.”

Elohei Ma’uzzi is another Hebrew name meaning “the God of my Strength.” As David sang, “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect” (2 Samuel 22:33).^[ii]

Got any complicated challenges and circumstances right now?

Perhaps you find yourself lamenting to the God of Strength, El Sali, wondering why you’ve been forgotten and why you feel weak.

Maybe things are good for you right now, but you know of others who have encountered shadows along their roads of deliverance.

Each of us is guaranteed life challenges, but God promises to be our strength when we call on Him. He is not puffed up and powerless. He is El Sali, the God of Strength who loves you and longs to move in and through your life.

Will you trust Him more deeply and allow Him to be your strength today?

Let’s Pray

Dear Lord, my Strength, El Sali, You are powerful and loving. Thank you for allowing me—this average, ordinary girl with complicated relationships and difficult circumstances—to have access to Your perfect Strength when I am weak. Help me to trust You when all my heart sees is fear.

In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.

Now It’s Your Turn

Read the first half of Psalm 84:5: Blessed are those whose strength is in you. To whom is this comment directed? In what ways has this been true in your life?

Where do you find yourself with this topic? Let’s have a community discussion on the wall of my blog and encourage one another today.

More from the Girlfriends

TWO DAY GIVEAWAY: Get a FREE Uncluttered CD when you purchase the Girlfriends in God book, Knowing God by Name. ONLY from the store at GwenSmith.net.

Today’s GiG devotion is adapted from Knowing God by Name by Sharon Jaynes, Gwen Smith, & Mary Southerland by permission of Multnomah, division of Random House, Inc.

[i] http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/El/el.html

[ii] http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Elohim/elohim.html