Power For The Weary

Have you ever felt that you are growing “weary in well doing” (Galatians 6:9)? You know that Jesus is with you. You know that the Bible promises you victory. But you just feel so tired. How can we motivate ourselves to keep on keeping on?

This is where we need to draw on a wonderful insight in Ephesians 1:18-20. Paul is urging us to fix our eyes on what God has in store for us – the hope we are called to and the riches of our inheritance. That’s a good way to persevere. The goal motivates us to press on through difficulties or weariness.

But what if we feel as if we lack the strength to reach the goal? That’s where the second part of Paul’s exhortation really kicks in. The hope we are called to is important, but we also need to know his “incomparably great power for us who believe”.

I love that word – incomparably. As Christians, we believe in something called the verbal inspiration of Scripture. That means that the Bible isn’t just vaguely inspired by God – but also that God has chosen the very words of the Bible. When the Holy Spirit led Paul to use a particular word, then that means it’s the perfect word chosen by God Himself. There’s no other word that would be better. So this word, incomparably, is so important.

The original Greek word here is hyperballo, and it literally means ‘to throw beyond.’ Think of a javelin thrower participating in the Olympics. On the field in front of him, he can see various coloured markers. One marks the furthest throw anyone has achieved in this year’s competition so far. Another marker shows the distance required to beat the Olympic Record. Yet another marker shows the current World Record.

He runs up and launches his javelin into the air, and it’s the greatest throw he’s ever imagined. It is, by far, the greatest throw in the history of the sport. It sails way past all the markers. It’s a medal-winning, record-beating, incomparably great throw. That’s what hyperballo means.

This superlative word, hyperballo, is reserved for God Himself. It is used to describe God’s glory (2 Corinthians 3:9-10), God’s grace (2 Corinthians 9:14) and the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:19). And here it is used to describe the all-surpassing power of God that raised Jesus from the dead.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. When everything seemed lost, when the Lord of Life was laid in a tomb as a lifeless corpse, this incomparably great power of God raised Jesus to life on that Resurrection morning. The seemingly unbreakable barriers of death and the grave were shattered forever. And that same power working within you and me is the reason why we can never stop and give in. The Holy Spirit in us empowers us to race toward our hope, our goal and our God-given destiny.