Psalm 31.10 laments my strength fails me because of my sin.

The Bible regularly encourages God’s people to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His Name.

Strength for serving God and glorifying His Name in this world is found in direct correlation to our obedience to His Word.

As David noted in today’s psalm, sin ruins our strength in God and for God but obedience increases our strength in God and for God.

This simple truth explains much about the current impact and influence the church is making upon our world today.

The first reason the church is weak is that not many have as their goal being strong in the Lord. Few Christians are dreaming about and seeking to accomplish great things for God.

How shallow is our love for Him that we seek to do so little to glorify Him upon the earth. It seems the majority of the Christians are focused mostly upon their own pleasures and purposes.

Like physical fitness, spiritual strength is developed through certain disciplines that are exercised daily.

Christian disciplines are Bible reading and prayer. It is impossible to know what God requires of us unless we are regularly engaged in His revealed will found in the Scriptures. Prayer is where the general word of God is made specific by the Holy Spirit to hearts and minds.

These two things are as fundamental to spiritual development as putting on running shoes and going to the gym are to the physically fit.

Finally, it is dogged, daily obedience where we exercise our spiritual disciplines developing our spiritual strength so that we are effective and productive in God’s work upon the earth.

If we would be strong in the Lord we must be doers of the Word of God.