According to His glorious power

that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; - Colossians 1v10-11


There is no doubt in my mind that there is nothing that I can do according to my own ability. That is a really humbling lesson. We want to be able to do something on our own and in our own strength. Paul instructs the Colossian believers here to ‘walk worthy of the Lord, live fully pleasing to Him, be fruitful in every good work, and increase in the knowledge of God.’

In reality that is a pretty tall order. Those things really read well. They look great, and the words kind of roll off the tongue. They sound great when you read them, but this is tough stuff! When you first get saved this is wonderful, but pretty soon you realise that you simply cannot do it!

That’s where the rest of the passage comes in. The only hope is to be strengthened with ‘all might.’ Where does ‘all might’ come from, ‘according to His glorious power.’ Where does ‘all might' and “his glorious power’ lead? It leads to patience and long suffering. How does that patience and longsuffering play out? The answer is clear – ‘with joy!’

The songwriter Andrew Peterson puts it like this – ‘Give us faith to be strong Father, we are so weak. Our bodies are fragile and weary. As we stagger and stumble to walk where you lead, give us faith to be strong.’

Being strong is not easy, but by faith we can depend on His omnipotent strength.