God’s Word for You
Philippians 4:12-13 Strengthen me
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Saturday, April 25, 2026
12 I know how to live in humble circumstances, and I know what it’s like to have more than enough. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every circumstance, whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. 13 In respect to all things I am strong in the one who keeps strengthening me.
Paul, remembering a lifetime that was not fiction at all but his own hard experience, knew that he had learned to face hardship and plenty with equanimity, an even mind. Perhaps he was even thinking of the meal he ate in the jailer’s kitchen in Philippi after the man and his family had been baptized (Acts 16:34). It was certainly not the food that made the moment so memorable, but the companionship they all shared in Christ; in the forgiveness of their sins. And what about the wealthy Lydia? Perhaps she had set out what we might think of as a finer table, being a dealer in purple. Yet there, too, it was not the undoubtedly fine food, but the companionship that they shared in Christ (Acts 16:15).
I am reminded of the scene where a wounded but cheerful soldier in War and Peace offers Pierre some potatoes just after he avoided execution (book 12, chapter 12). Adding a little salt from a rag, Pierre (a Russian Count) “thought he had never eaten anything that tasted better.” It was a moment he would recall long after, having learned contentment.
Paul calls this realization he has made “learning the secret” (μεμύημαι, verse 12). The verb is passive, so perhaps “I have been taught the secret” should be the stress we place on this statement. There were entire religions in ancient Greece that focused on secrets and learning about the world’s hidden mysteries. Perhaps Paul is dredging up one of their own words to show who is really in control of the mysteries of the world. For who was Paul’s teacher? It was the Lord God, who created us and our world, but who also provides for us day by day, moment by moment. How does he do this? We confess it in the First Article of the Creed: “God still preserves me by richly and daily providing clothing and shoes, food and drink, property and home, spouse and children, land, cattle, and all I own, and all I need to keep my body and life. God also preserves me by defending me against all danger, guarding and protecting me from all evil.”
To rely on God takes faith. Paul knows that besides faith, he is strong, but he doesn’t refer to strength here as a noun (as if it is something he possesses), but as a verb that describes him: “I am strong.” And his strength is not his own achievement. His being strong comes directly and only from his connection with the one who does the strengthening, which, once again, is God alone. It is God who preserves, who defends, who guards, and who protects. The abilities of man, even great spiritual leaders and teachers, like Paul and the Apostles, mean nothing at all when it comes to this kind of strength. We are not the ones who make ourselves strong: God is strong, and God strengthens. Isaiah says the same thing: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak… Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:29-31).
One person may have lost their strength, another had none to begin with. But the Lord strengthens them by giving them faith. When Pharaoh was surprised by the great age reached by Jacob, the patriarch confessed that he was a hundred and thirty, but that “my years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers” (Genesis 47:9). We each feel age as it settles upon us, some grow older faster, others seem to take more time, according to the gifts God chooses to give. But as our natural strength fails, God strengthens us again and again with the means of grace, the Gospel in word and sacrament.
Should we stay away from the Lord’s Supper when our faith is weak? Not at all! The sacrament is there to offer and give forgiveness and to strengthen our faith. That is one of the great blessings of the Word of God, whether it is read, preached, memorized, or offered along with the earthly elements in the sacrament (Romans 4:20-21). So God keeps strengthening us, so that we may live for him. “Strengthen me according to your word” (Psalm 119:28).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.