F.R.O.G. AND T.R.I.G. IT!

“I can do everything through Him who gives me strength!”  (Philippians 4:13, NIV)

One of the things I sometimes appreciate about having a chronic illness is that it forces me daily to F.R.O.G. (“Fully Rely on God”) and T.R.I.G. it (“Totally Rest in God”).  Without Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (or “CFIDS”), I would trust mostly in my own abilities, and not in the Lord.  When I was too sick to worry about the little details of my day, I learned to give it all to Jesus and let Him take care of everything for me.  Today, I have a closer relationship with Christ because I have had to depend so much on Him. 

Someone in Scripture who had great strength was Samson.  An Angel of the Lord appeared to Samson’s mother and told her she would conceive and bear a son (Judges 13:3).  He warned her to be careful not to drink wine or eat anything unclean because the child, Samson, would be a Nazirite, set apart by God from the womb to deliver Israel from the Philistines (Judges 13:4-5). 

Samson was born, and the Lord blessed him.  Three times the Spirit of the Lord descended upon him and he killed his enemies (Judges 14:19).  He led Israel for twenty years, but did not take his Nazirite vows seriously.  He broke his vows by touching a dead thing (14:8-9); drinking wine (14:10), and cutting his hair (16:19), which was strictly forbidden.  Samson was also enticed by foreign women.  The Philistines finally discovered his secret, cut his hair and the Spirit of the Lord left him.  Samson became weak and powerless like other men (Judges 16:20-21).

How about you?  Like Samson, are you self-reliant or do you rely on Christ daily for strength?  God has made us weak so that our complete dependence will be upon Him and not ourselves, and to show our dying world God’s sufficient grace and power that is made perfect in our weaknesses, as 2 Corinthians 12:9 clearly states.  Only when we F.R.O.G. and T.R.I.G. it will we see our weaknesses become His great strengths.  Rejoice in that today!

Dear Jesus: Help us daily to rely on Your great strength and power to see us through.