Strength in Christ

“It is God who arms me with strength” – 2 Samuel 22:33.

2 Samuel 22 reveals God’s strength in an incredibly detailed way.  The strength that I have always witnessed within these writings is the powerful force God has against the enemy.  As an athlete, I am drawn to His conquering love that overrides and crushes all opposing forces.  All athletes head to the weight room to develop strength and then enter competition with the focus of crushing the opponent.  (As a reminder, the ultimate opponent is the devil and the thoughts he fills us with: anxiety, fear, failure, depression, etc.).  Therefore God’s strength displayed in 2 Samuel 22 is easy to pick up on as it directly corresponds to sport. 

God’s mind-blowing strength is so desirable that I have always loved 2 Samuel 22:33:  “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.”   It has been a “go-to” verse during workout sessions and conditioning testing.  When we are pushed beyond our physical limits (which seemed to happen every day on the Olympic tour…still blows my mind how we would be surprised at the levels reached after yet another excruciating workout or skate) it was crucial for me to drawn upon someone infinitely stronger than I.  For example, during conditioning tests I would repeat “It is God who arms me with strength” over and over and over as my legs absolutely burned with pain.  Repeating this phrase strengthened my mind in the singular focus of the task at hand…rely on God’s strength.  This not only enabled me to push past the pain, but it instilled a resiliency and realization that I am drawing strength from God, which meant I could skate forever on His strength!  My heart was filled with confidence as I pressed on.  Relying on Him meant I could not only finish this test, but succeed, thrive, and excel. 

Focusing every thought on “it is God who arms me with strength” allowed my mind to not obsess over the pain in my body.  Dieter (my strength coach at the U) recently told me this awesome analogy depicting the same message:  Imagine you are getting chased by a lion and you run through a thorn bush; your brain doesn’t even comprehend the physical pain incurred by the thorn bush at the time because the sole thought coursing through the entire body, mind, and soul is “RUN FASTER!!!!!!”.  When we are in survival mode, we push all unnecessary thoughts to the background because they deter from the ultimate goal of RUNNING FASTER!  Only after you escape the lion and the adrenaline wears off do you realize the pain caused by the thorns.  This is how I looked at the conditioning test…thankfully no lions were hunting me down :).   The burning in my legs is a negative thought that interferes with performing the task at hand.  I’ve never been chased by a lion but I highly recommend not slowing down to stare at your blood filled arms because the lion will be pouncing.  Acknowledging the pain during the competition only presents an easy avenue to give up or slow down.  Focus on Christ, press on, and thrive.  My pastor in Boston has mentioned that with Christ we don’t just survive, we thrive!  Therefore, leave behind survival mode and enjoy “thrival mode.”

Another popular verse for drawing strength is “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).  This is a fantastic verse but sometimes I like having the “God” go before the “I”.  Like my name: GIGI stands for God and I God and I.  God goes before I do.  It’s a reminder that I am second, He is first.  Sometimes when I say the Phil 4:13 verse, the devil could throw in a little doubt by saying, “well you have struggled before” or “you didn’t succeed earlier when you attempted this.”  So when I lead with God first (“It is God who arms me with strength”) then there is absolutely no wiggle room for deceiving thoughts to take this verse down.  Why?  Because God has never once struggled, failed, or faltered.  He is undefeated, perfect, a 100% win percentage in all battles!  It takes the pressure off of me by focusing on a God who is infinitely mightier than I.  Therefore, having a verse that literally reminds me of who I am and that God goes first floods me with confidence.

May God go before you and fill you with strength, confidence, and peace!

G.I.G.I.