Colossians 1:11 “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and long suffering with joy.”
Paul’s prayer for the believers in verse 11 is “strengthened with all might.” To make strong, that’s the obvious meaning. But it can also mean to confirm.
Strengthened. Confirmed. You get to a place where you’re not questioning your convictions. You begin to get strong in your convictions, and your convictions now have the foundation of The Word. You are no longer wavering, but you are secure in your convictions. What you believe is supported and fortified by The Word, and you begin to believe God’s Word and His promises and you trust in Him.
You are strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, not limited, but rather unlimited, because the power is according to Him. It’s not you, not you in your own strength. We’ve got to be aware of that.
One Psalmist wrote in Psalm 78:40-42 “How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert. Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power: the day when He redeemed them from the enemy.”
If we forget what Jesus did, how He pulled us out of the pit and set our feet upon the Rock, then we become disoriented spiritually; and once that happens, we begin a downward spiral. We have forgotten that we can trust the Lord for any thing, and everything.
Romans 8:37-39 says “Yet in all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That’s a very thorough statement! So even in your wildest imaginations, nothing can separate you from God. If you forget that though, that’s when you get into trouble.
It goes on to say “His glorious power,” which speaks of force, the true force by the Spirit of God. And “all patience,” which is really a stick-to-it-ness, a steadfast and enduring patience that He qualified well: first, patience and long-suffering. That long-suffering is a decision of permanence, and also of joy or gladness. We know that the Lord will put that joy in our life and that balance in our step to serve the Lord, not dreading a day, but rejoicing in the day, because it’s the day that the Lord has made.