Receiving Strength to Continue
Today’s devotional
When your strength is depleted, an encouraging request to keep going can sound like another task. You already know the work matters. You have already tried to be determined. What you need may be a way to receive care when your usual capacity to produce a response has grown small.
Paul describes an affliction he calls a thorn in the flesh. He asks repeatedly for its removal. The text does not identify its precise nature, and we do not need to supply a diagnosis. The important movement is that Paul seeks relief and receives the Lord’s assurance of grace within a difficulty that remains.
That grace is not an accusation against the person who still feels weak. It is Christ’s promise to meet him. Paul’s desire for relief belongs within faithful prayer, and so can ours. We may ask for change, seek appropriate treatment or counsel, and accept practical support while continuing to depend on God.
In Mark, Jesus invites returning apostles to come away and rest. Their bodies and attention matter within their service. Receiving strength may therefore begin in an ordinary way: a meal accepted, a conversation shared, a boundary clarified, or an appointment finally made. No one practice becomes a formula that guarantees recovery.
Ask where care is available to you today. If your strength is too small to arrange it alone, let someone help with that step. You do not need to turn every hopeful moment into proof of steady progress. Christ can receive gratitude for relief and sorrow about what persists. Dependence belongs to life with him, including the life of the person who is learning to continue.
Adapted from Chapter 9: Receiving Strength to Continue in The Courage to Continue by Dr. R. C. Titus.
Read the Scripture
Open each passage and read slowly. Notice what these words reveal about God and the life before you.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 · WEBU
7By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, a thorn in the flesh was given to me: a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively.
8Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
9He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.
10Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.
Mark 6:30-32 · WEBU
30The apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus, and they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught.
31He said to them, “Come away into a deserted place, and rest awhile.” For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
32They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.
Pause and respond
For reflection
What care could I receive now that I have been trying to replace with more determination?
A practice for today
Choose one available form of support and accept or request it today. Make the request specific, whether it concerns a task, rest, companionship, or help arranging appropriate professional care.
A prayer
Jesus, meet me where determination is no longer enough. Help me ask honestly for relief and receive the care available to me. Keep me from treating weakness as a failure of faith. Let your grace hold what remains difficult and guide my next step toward support. Amen.
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