Scripture Devotion
The strength has a source — and it isn't you.
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Reflection
This verse is quoted so often as a slogan of self-empowerment that its actual engine gets lost. The strength isn't self-generated — it's through Christ which strengtheneth me. The sentence has a source, and the source is not the speaker. That's the difference between a boast and a testimony. Read in context, Paul is talking about contentment in every circumstance — abased or abounding, full or hungry. The "all things" he can do is chiefly endure all conditions without being undone by them. It's less a promise of unlimited achievement than of unbreakable sufficiency: whatever the day holds, the strength to meet it comes from outside the self and doesn't run dry.