Christ In The Crisis

For I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power.

Philippians 4:13 TLB

A friend told me the story of a nonbelieving friend of his who came to him in the midst of a very troubled day. Knowing that my friend is a Christian, the man asked him, “If I get born again, will all of my problems go away?”

“No,” said my friend, “but you will have the power to deal with them.”

Think about that. Our problems won’t go away, but we will have the power to deal with them. The power to deal with problems produces a muscular Christian who is capable of doing combat with the evil one. If we could dismiss all of our problems with a single stroke, we would be the most shallow of individuals. We would be spiritual “wimps” unable to fight our way out of wet paper bags!

The prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is perhaps the greatest prayer ever uttered. Our Lord asked that this cup of crucifixion, which was about to be thrust upon Him, might be taken away. But then, in the very next breath He said, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). What a prayer! What strength! What power!

When the apostle Paul asked God to remove his “thorn in the flesh,” God did not remove it, saying instead, “My grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Christ desires to be with you in whatever crisis you may find yourself. Call upon His name. See if He will not do as He promised He would. He may not make your problems go away, but He will give you the power to deal with and overcome them.

Our Father and our God, I need Your strength. I cannot deal with the problems in my life without Your power. I trust You to be with me through hard times. Increase my faith, and give me the courage and patience to live one day at a time in Your grace. Through Christ, who brought that grace to me. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).