“What?”

About “inner strength.

“What’s that?”

Well, let him tell you himself:

That in keeping with His glorious riches, by His Spirit, He may make it possible for you to be strengthened with power in the inner person.       Eph. 3:16

“Oh good! You just gave me a new entry for my 3:16 list of verses!”

Glad for that, but did you get what He was saying?

“Well, not exactly.”

Paul had mentioned the afflictions that he suffered for Christ (v. 13). Amazing how he kept going in spite of them!

“Yep.”

Well, have you ever thought what it was that enabled him to keep up serving Christ?”

“Gratitude?”

Certainly that! In 2 Corinthians 4:1 he makes that clear. But how do you think that he could keep from giving up merely out of gratitude?”

“Something to do with that Ephesians verse you just quoted?”

Right on! He needed internal strength (lit., dunamis, which means power or strength). And in v. 20 he says that power “is working in us.”

“How is that?”

We don’t understand all of the particulars, but he says that it is the Spirit that provides it. The Spirit helps him see the length and breadth of Christ’s love for him, and this puts him back to work if he is ever tempted to give up.

“Hmmmm.”

Indeed! And we learn a bit more about this in Philippians 2:13:

since it is God Who is producing in you both the willingness and the ability to do those things that please Him.

Clearly, Paul did much by the Spirit’s power, and he says that God is doing the same thing for the Philippians.

“So it’s not for apostles alone?”

Nope. It’s yours if you ask for it. Paul prayed that all those who were in his churches would be empowered with H.S. dunamis. So we can have it too. Sure, there are a lot of times when you want to throw the towel in. But you don’t because of His inner strength.

“Wow!”

But, remember, it has to do with enabling you to do the things that please God.

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