In the FoxHole, part IV:
Strength in Christ

In the FoxHole, part I - Strength before Strength
In the FoxHole, part II - Pain as Teacher
In the FoxHole, part III - Waiting

As I wait, I have to find new inner resources. The status quo is challenged and more is being required of me than has ever been required before. My current spiritual chops are woefully insufficient. I need a transcendent strength that will handle the increased load.

For the last several years I've had on my bulletin board, on my home and work laptops, and on my PDA a document called "Strength in Christ" with four passages I've found very helpful. I go back to them again and again. I go to them now:

• Philippians 4:11-13 (all references English Standard Version and all emphases mine)
  
  ¹¹Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹²I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. ¹³I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
  
  
• 2 Corinthians 4:7-9
  
  ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ⁸We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
  
  
• 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
  
  ¹⁶So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, ¹⁸as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
  
  
• 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
  
  ⁷So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. ⁹But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.