“What strength do I have, that I should hope?" Wow, wat impact a word study can have!

I so love studying God's word!!!!!  I know I have said that before but this is so cool!

As you know, one of the things I am doing is a word study on the words that describe the character of God.  The word I am studying right now is strength. 

So I run across this verse today.  A verse that I have read many times before.  Because of the word study this verse has a whole new meaning.  Or maybe a better way to say it is not so much new meaning as more depth.  Read the verse and I'll explain what I mean. 

Job 6:11(NKJV)

    “What strength do I have, that I should hope?      And what is my end, that I should prolong my life?

Hope.  The most essential of human emotions in my opinion.  Hope indicates a belief that things will get better.  Generally it takes work for things to get better.  Work takes strength.  Where does that strength come from?

So far in my word study of strength Scripture says there are basically two places that strength comes from.  We get strength internally from ourselves and we get strength externally from God.

What we find is that if we depend only on our own strength it can fail.  If we depend on God's strength it never fails.  That doesn’t mean things immediately get better with God's strength.  It just means God's strength will carry us through the tough times that our own strength can't endure.  God's strength will bring us through to point that things get better.  Make sense? 

So let's take a look at the first part of the verse again.  "What strength do I have, that I should hope?". 

Which strength do I have?   Do I have just my own strength?  If so is that enough to base hope on? 

On the other hand if I have God's strength is that enough to base my hope on?  You bet it is!