Strength is something that I want in every area of my life: physical, emotional, financial, mental… and spiritual.

Mark Bell, a powerlifting coach, always says that, “Strength is never a weakness.” I’m sure that some might argue that… but I think that fundamentally he is correct. Strength is the antidote to so much pain and so many problems!

This morning I was building strength in my spiritual life by spending some time reading and reflecting on some words written by St. Paul in the Bible.

Let me show you what he wrote, and then I want to ask you three questions:

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. ⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. ⁹ Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:6-9 NLT)

So here are the three questions:

1. What are you praying about?
2. What are you thinking about?
3. Who are your models?

The answers to these three questions will tell you everything you need to know about your spiritual strength. Your weakness or your strength is directly proportional to your answers.

If you pray about nothing, think about negative things, and model your life after weak people… then you’re going to be spiritually weak (and probably weak in other areas too)!

If you want to change your spiritual weakness into strength then listen to what St. Paul teaches us…

Spiritual strength is developed and sustained when we:

• Pray about the things that worry us.
• Think about the things that encourage and inspire us.
• Model our lives after people who are spiritually strong.

So with this information in mind, let me ask you again:

1. What are you praying about?
2. What are you thinking about?
3. Who are your models?