I need to be honest with you about something. For years, I misquoted this verse without even realizing it.
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I used it the way most of us do, before a hard conversation or a challenge I wanted to win. I treated it like a guarantee that if my faith was strong enough, the outcome would go my way. I never sat down to read what Paul wrote before that verse because I already thought I knew what it meant.
Then I finally sat with it. Really sat with it. And I realized I had been misquoting Scripture for years.
Paul did not write this verse from a stage after a win. He wrote it from prison, thanking a church for helping him in his need. Read what he says right before verse 13:
"Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." — Philippians 4:11-13 (NKJV)
That is not a man talking about winning. That is a man talking about surviving. He is telling you he learned contentment in both directions, in plenty and in want, in fullness and in hunger. Verse 13 is not a new thought. It is the summary of everything he just said. The strength he describes is not the strength to get what he wanted. It is the strength to make it through when he didn't.
I had it backwards for years. This verse was never a promise that you will win the game, get the job, or come out on top if you believe hard enough. It is a promise that you can make it through the hard season you are actually in, the one that isn't going the way you hoped, because Christ is enough to hold you steady in it.
Scripture says this same thing in more than one place.
"Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content." — 1 Timothy 6:6-8 (NKJV)
"And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." — 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NKJV)
"Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" — Hebrews 13:5 (NKJV)
None of these promise you will get what you're asking for. They promise He will not leave you while you're asking. That is a harder truth than the version I used to believe, but it's a sturdier one, too. It doesn't fall apart when life doesn't go your way.
So if you're in a season right now when nothing is going as you planned, hear this verse the way Paul meant it. He is not telling you that you can do all things and win. He is telling you that you can do all things and survive, because the strength was never about the outcome. It was always about Him.
Pastor Keith