I think one of the greatest deficits today, as in paralleling the National debt, ‘greatest’ deficits, is a deficit of spiritual strength. This is a deficit in the born again, spirit filled church and to my mind is much more dangerous than the fiscal, national debt so many believers grieve over.
Reading Ephesians chapter three, the thought flits across my frontal lobe ‘why would someone who is already born again need to be strengthened by the already indwelling Spirit?’ Quick as lightening, from the other region, soul answers back ‘because it’s spent.’
That reminded me of a few scriptures. Isaiah chapter forty-nine records the suffering servant as saying ‘he’d spent his strength for nothing.
Psalm eight four says the righteous go from ‘strength to strength’. Jesus told one of His seven churches ‘you have but a little strength’ and then later on says ‘hold on to what you have’.
Paul teaches us in one of his epistles to the Corinthians that because of pressure, despairing of life itself, that his own insufficiency was overshadowed by Christs strength, making Paul strong again through the Lord.
I’m reminded once again of the need to pray in the spirit, past mine and other’s problems, beyond my past, out of today and into the future. It’s my own prayers in the spirit that cause me to be built up in my faith, and being built up and strong in my faith is the only possible way I can ensure I will not ever be over-spent into spiritual bankruptcy.