I am going to use a quote by Dick Lucas,' How do we appropriate power? The apostle Paul's surprising answer is that we receive it not so much by believing as by working. It is when we' toil and strive' at a God given task, that we receive God-given energy.If we hope to know in experience the work of God within us' both to will and to work for His good pleasure' we must set to work.Paul would never have said that,'power for service' is received by faith alone. It can be appropriated only by the faith that works, or to put it another way, by the work that relies on God to energize us as we try to do His bidding. As Paul toiled ( a particularly strong word, also used by him to describe his back-breaking manual work, tentmaking) in teaching with strenuous endeavour, God himself granted strength and capacity for the work , God gives his power'.
From strength to strength go on;
Wrestle and fight and pray ;
Tread all the powers of darkness down
And win the well- fought day.
Charles Wesley
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