Daily Manna · Day 355 · December 21
Strengthened in the Inner Man
“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.”
A man sits in his own driveway with the engine off. The house is lit up in front of him, and he needs another minute before he goes in. Nothing is wrong inside. He simply has nothing left, and the people behind that door are the very ones he most wanted to have something for.
Paul prays today's prayer on his knees, "I bow my knees unto the Father," and he prays it as a prisoner. What stands out is what he asks for. He could have asked to be set free, or for the pressure on him and on the believers to lift. He asks for something deeper: to be "strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." The inner man is the inner person, the part of you that nobody else sees. It is the part that wears out first, and the part nobody sends flowers to.
Look at the measure Paul attaches to the request, because one small phrase is doing real work: "according to the riches of his glory." Paul does not say "out of" God's riches, as if it were a withdrawal from a big bank account. He says "according to" them, and that makes the size of the gift match the greatness of the Giver. A rich man giving out of his wealth might hand over a coin. A rich man giving according to his wealth gives like the rich man he is.
So this strength is a gift. You are not being asked to find it in yourself, and you will not find it there. It comes from God, through His Spirit.
So pray Paul's prayer with your own name in it before you get out of the car tonight. Ask God to strengthen your inner self, even if your circumstances stay the same for now. Then give the first ten minutes inside the house to the person you have had nothing left for. The strength you need for them is His to give, and He gives it according to riches that never run low.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 355 is Vision and Restraint (Proverbs 29:18).