"The Strengthening"

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4:13) Sometimes we must confine in the real source of our power more than that of others; unfortunately, we do not always do this. Actually, in most cases it takes us being to the point where we have exhausted all other sources before we will rely on the real source of our strength. For Paul, his was a dramatic awakening, and one that did not require much more trial and error to get it right. It is one thing to be lead into the ministry, and it is quite another to be swept into it. Timothy was a man that had been lead into the ministry by Paul; taken under his wing, and treated as his son, Paul had pretty much adopted Timothy into his ministry to reach the Gentiles. Paul on the other had been swept into the ministry; literally swept off his feet and placed on the road to preaching the Gospel. A road which was faced with much opposition, and from all sides but One; and yet, it was this One that was the source of his strength, right from the start. It is hard for me to imagine what Paul must have felt in the lowest points of his ministry; or what he must have considered during those times when his brothers, fellow countrymen, and new found friends had pushed him out as a trouble maker, and even as one who was corrupting the faith. Given a charge to take the Gospel of Christ to all the nations, kings, and all of Israel, Paul had opposition from those that he was taking to, as well as those from which he had come; not an easy task to deal with. Timothy was Greek; his father was a Greek and his mother was a Jewess; and for him, he had been given a chance to enter into the ministry on a whole different level; one which accepted the idea of adoption into the family of God and His chosen people. While Paul, who considered himself a Jew of the Jews, relinquished his title, to be brought into a more common place with his Gentile brothers and sisters. Not that he was abandoning his heritage, but that his heritage had abandoned him. And given a new heritage in Christ Jesus, he pressed forward, not regarding those things which he had once counted as his heritage in the Jewish nation, he had converted his homeland to a place that had it's heritage in Jesus Christ. It was this mindset that was his determination to persevere through much of the rejection that he received from those that were his own. And yet he did not abandon those that were his own and part of his previous heritage, but rather strove to include them into the new heritage; knowing that ultimately God's people were still the children of Israel, and that everyone else was to be grafted into the family of God by their belief in Jesus Christ; which was something else that also caused him great opposition. Therefore, right from the start Paul had no one else to count on for strength and encouragement than Jesus; Who, by the commission that He had given unto Paul, had enabled him to endure every obstacle that did arise. Okay then, now that we have covered some of the source of Paul's strengthening, lets look at the practical side: What is your calling? And what are the obstacles that you might face? And most importantly: If you know what your calling is, do you look for open and closed doors to be the judge of it? Or, do you as Paul, look to The Door to be the only authority to that which guilds your way? Sometimes a door that is open or closed is not the answer to moving forward, but rather is an obstacle in and of itself that must be overcome, or a distraction from that which you are meant to do. It's kind a funny the way that we look at things sometimes, as if that which seems to be the way of least resistance is the true road to take; when in reality, it may be just the opposite, because the one will cause us to rely upon ourselves, while the other requires that we rely solely upon God...