One of our friends recently lost her husband unexpectedly. She and her husband had retired from their jobs and moved to a new state. They left their family and friends to pursue a new retired life in a new state where they didn’t know anyone. But after ten months she is now a widow and alone in a new town.
She wonders why God would have moved to her to Colorado to be alone. She wonders if she will be able to continue on. At times she has confessed she feels like she cannot. But she knows that God is with her and she’s said she feels him helping her each and every day.
The author of Hebrews reminds us, “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21, NASB).[1]
When the author of Hebrews tells us that God will “equip you in every good thing to do His will,” it reminds us that God gives us what we need to endure life. Through struggling marriages, disobedient children, layoffs from jobs, environmental disasters that damage our property, or when our family members pass away, God equips us to handle it. The word for “equip” here is the Greek word katartisai which was used by trainers to adjust parts of the body, as in “put into proper condition.”
In other words, God will equip us to handle anything that comes our way. He’ll adjust us so that we can endure what we are going through. Yes, it will feel like we can’t handle it. And we probably couldn’t handle it without God. But God will stick with us through it. He quips us in “every good thing to do His will.” And he is “working in us that which is pleasing in His sight.”
When we do something that betrays our friend’s trust and we wonder how we will earn his trust back, God will help us do what we need to do. When we make an error at work and it fumbles up a project and costs the company money, God will equip us to make it right. When we lose a family member and don’t know how to go on, God will comfort us and walk with us each step of the way.
[1] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.