Get Greater Strength!

       You Can Go

      the Next Mile!  

       Do you have days where it seems hard to keep going?  Maybe it’s today.  You’re just not sure if you can go the next mile.  What you’re trying to do seems hard and is taking so long.  Yet, you know if you’re going to get where you want to be, you have to go it.  You have to go the next mile.

       There are some days that I’ve worked hard and things haven’t gone well, plus I didn’t feel well that day, and yet I pushed on.  At the end of the day, I said to John, “Well, I climbed Mount Everest today.”

       That’s how you feel.  You didn’t have the strength but you kept pushing until you accomplished what you had to do in spite of how you felt.  That was God’s divine strength coming alongside you to help you do it.

       You have extra strength to get through another day of that irritating coworker or disappointing marriage or friendship.  With help from God, the pain in your body or in your heart doesn’t stop you.  You can handle it another day.  Fear, or finances, or challenges in your schedule—hey, they’re no match for the strength that is upholding you.

       There’s a man who found the strength he needed when he was in severe conditions.  He said the best thing he ever discovered was the principle of the “next mile.”  During World War II, he was on an army transport plane flying over mountains and jungle on the Burma-India border.  About that time, the left engine of their C-46 malfunctioned so he and the group with him decided to parachute.

       They had to walk 140 miles over mountains to get to India in order to be rescued.  It was in August.  Terrible heat.  Monsoon rains.  He said the very first hour they started their march, he rammed a nail deep into one foot.  He also developed blisters that bled.  So he began to wonder how he could hobble that distance.

       Then he realized he didn’t have to march the full 140 miles, not that day anyway.  All he had to do was hobble to the next village for the night.  That’s when he developed the principle of the “next mile.”  He would hobble the next mile and then get enough strength to go the next day and make it to the next village.  By doing that, over time the group made it to their destination and they were rescued.

       He said when he returned to the States, he began to exist by the next-mile principle.  No matter what the task was, he knew he could go the next mile and gain enough strength to complete it.

       That’s the principle God has given us in His Word.  He will give us the strength we need to make it the next mile.  We can through the next day and the next.  In Psalm 138:3, David said that when he called out to God, You answered me; and You strengthened me with strength in my inner self.  As you call out to God when you’re in the jungles, faced with mountains, the heat is on you, and all you can do is hobble, He will answer you.  He will strengthen you with strength in your inner self.  You’ll be wrapped in it.  Protected.  That’s when you can receive the support and refreshing the Holy Spirit gives you.

       This is what a woman has been doing, and now she’s seeing the results of depending on God’s strength.  Her husband had passed away.  Her financial resources were not enough, and she felt weak so she couldn’t work much.  It seemed she was a person of no power and no ability to see things get better.

       So we wrote and encouraged her and gave her words of strength.  As we prayed and spoke God’s Word into her life, it was wrapping His strength around her.  Sometime after that, we received a letter from her and here’s what it said, “I know God is working in my life and finances.  I’m getting stronger and able to work more hours and so I’m making more income.  I believe this is just part of the process of preparing me for greater things.”

       Over the years, we have heard from her many more times and her life is not even the same.  Finances are taken care of.  She has remarried.  She’s thriving and growing.  It’s amazing.  The strength of God entered into her conditions and wrapped around her to help her keep going the next mile.  She’s made it.  She’s arrived at the place she wanted to be.

       The Holy Spirit is there to strengthen you.  To help you when it seems as if it is soooo far away and hard to get to where you want to be.  He’ll help you go the next mile, and the next, and the next, until you reach the place of blessing, until you receive help, until you complete what’s in your heart.  Yes, you’ll make it because you can go the next mile.

A Spiritual Powerline to say out loud:

“I WILL MAKE IT!”

  Here is a powerful prayer
              to say out loud:               

       Lord, I call out to You for strength in the midst of what I’m facing.  Wrap it around me.  Make my inner self strong.  I will go the next mile, and the next, until I reach where You have for me.  Thank You for the great blessing and victory that are ahead of me.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.