This coming Sunday I’m beginning a new series of sermons on the subject of “Extra Strength.” It’s called “Riveting Strength: Strength Will Rise When We Wait Upon the Lord.” I’m basing my messages on the premise that God has promised to give us all necessary strength for all divinely appointed tasks as long as we live. Deuteronomy 33:25 says: “Your strength will equal your days.”
Earlier this year, I visited President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s home in Hyde Park, New York, which is also the site of his Presidential Library. One of the displays is his original desk from the Oval Office, all set up the way it was when he was president. It was so covered with equipment and papers and kick-knacks that I wondered how he got anything done there. But the item that most intrigued me was a beautiful wooden frame. It didn’t contain a picture of his wife or his mother or his children. At the top of the frame the word “ENGAGEMENTS” was stamped in gold; and beneath the glass was the President’s schedule for that day. It was called his Appointments Easel, and every day his daily agenda was typed up and slipped under the glass so he would know the plan for the day.
I believe that God has an appointment easel set up in heaven for each of us, that He has a daily agenda for each of our lives. If we look at the immensity of the problems we face or the backlog of work that towers over us like a mountain range, we’ll break down. But everything changes when we realize we can’t do yesterday’s work or tomorrow’s work or all the work. We can’t solve yesterday’s problems or tomorrow’s problems or all the problems. We can simply do what God has assigned us today. Just for today we can do God’s will.
The promise in Deuteronomy 33:25 is that we will have sufficient God’s given strength for all our God-assigned tasks through each of our God-appointed days. Every new day, you will have the strength you need to do the work God has assigned. Your strength will equal your days. And, in God’s providence, the final drops of our earthly strength in this life will perfectly correspond with the finishing of the work He has given us on earth to do.
Our strength will equal our days.