What is the source of your strength? Do you think it is all in yourself? Or do you depend upon some other person for your strength?
Many people seem to feel that they are independently strong. They need no one or no thing else. Americans especially buy into this myth. Eventually an opponent who is stronger appears. Sometimes this opponent is not a physical force. Sometimes it’s an insidious emotion that wells up inside and eats away the strength. It could be pride. Or greed. Or lust. The opponent brings them down.
Others are dependent people. They feel they have no strength and depend upon another person to be their strength. Inevitably that person will let them down.
I was just reading Habakkuk and this line of the poem struck me, “Their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.” I am not sure what he meant when he reported this saying of God in the context of the awesome power of the Chaldeans who were about to attack and destroy Israel. I’m not teaching what Habakkuk meant.
In the tradition of Lectio Divina, I was just reading and waiting for the Lord to speak. And this hit me. What is the source of your power? All the minor prophets I have been reading lately presented long lists of reasons why God was displeased with the Hebrews. Then there is this statement. There it is. Their source of power and strength came not from the Lord, but from other places–themselves, other gods, whatever.
But if your strength comes from the Lord, the one God, then it is built upon a foundation that never wavers. In fact, He is the source of all creation and all strength and all power. Why seek elsewhere when you can draw strength from the source?
Faith Venture 
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