Strength to Serve (1 Chronicles 19:13)

Be strong, and let us use our strength for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.
– 1 Chronicles 19:13

I love the beginning of this verse. Let me say it again. Let it soak in. Be strong, and let us use our strength for our people and for the cities of our God. In other words, it’s not just “Be strong”. We see that exhortation all throughout Scripture to be strong in the Lord. But not just be strong in the Lord. Use that strength that God provides for other people. Just let that soak in as you think about your day today or your life right now. How can you use the strength God provides you for the good of other people?

1 Chronicles 19:13 teaches us to use God’s strength for others.

I love the picture here. It’s like a conduit. God’s strength in you for the good of others. So just think about your life right now. Who can you strengthen by the strength God’s providing you? Who can you encourage? Who can you help? Who can you do good for by the strength God provides you?

Oh God, we pray that you would help us to live this way today. Help us to be strong in you. We need your strength, oh God. We need your strength in every way. Apart from you, we can do nothing. And we pray that you would help us to use the strength you provide for other people. God, we pray that the fruit of our lives today would be others being built up in you, others being encouraged, edified, served, strengthened. God, we pray you’d make us sensitive today to people who need strength around us and help us to be a source of strength for them. Your strength in us, a source of strength for them.

1 Chronicles 19:13 urges believers to live for the good of all people.

God, help us to be sensitive to opportunities to encourage others, to build up other brothers and sisters in Christ, to strengthen their faith. And God, we pray that you would help us to be that source of strength by your grace, your strength in us, in the lives of people who don’t know you around us today, that they might experience your strength, your grace, your encouragement, your hope, your peace through us, through our presence in their lives.

God, help us to live for the good of our cities, for the good of our communities. Help us to be strong by your grace in ways that lead to the good of the people around us. Oh God, may your strength not stop with us. May it spread through us. And God, we pray this for the peoples of the world as your people.

Prayer for the Druze People

God, we pray for the Druze people of Lebanon and Israel, and Syria, for over a million of them who don’t know you. Lord Jesus, we pray that your people in all those places in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel may be strengthened. God, we pray for the strengthening of your church in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel right now. And we pray that you would strengthen them for the good of others around them in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel.

And we pray that you would cause your strength to be made known amidst war in some of these places, amidst such horrific tragedy in some of these places. God, we pray that your strength, your love, your mercy would spread through the strength you provide for your people. Pray all this according to your Word in 1 Chronicles 19:13. Help us to be strong and use our strength for the good of those around us. In Jesus’ name, we pray in the name of the one who is our strength in us, and the only hope of strength for others. Amen.