That's how I felt when my patient tested positive for Covid-19 the other night! Only my cape was a gortex gown and my N95 mask was covered with an additional medical mask and face shield. But I didn't feel invincible because of what was on me, but rather because of what was in me.
I have had two Covid vaccination shots plus the booster, I have now had Covid and I have also had the monoclonal antibodies. Grace, a friend of mine at work who also had Covid when I did, remarked that we were probably the best people to take care of Covid patients that night.
I am not a stranger to caring for Covid patients, in fact, I was the nurse for the first delivery of a Covid patient in our hospital. (You can read about that here.) I have never felt undue fear in the role, but I have always been very careful to take all the necessary precautions.
But this time I felt different. Although I still used all the personal protection equipment, I didn't feel that my protection came primarily from what I wore, but from what was circulating through my body. I knew there was something inside of me giving me a strength, a protection I didn't normally have.
How true this is of the Christian. We aren't strong because we have puffed ourselves up to be. In fact, the Apostle Paul stated this about himself:
"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." (2 Corinthians 12:10.)
He could make that statement because of the verse that came before it. Paul was speaking of the "thorn in the flesh" the Lord had given him, and how he had asked for it to be removed. This is what Paul said God's response to him was:
"And He said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' "
Paul then affirms, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2Corinthians 12:9.)
As we walk the Christian life, we are not strong, loving, peaceful, kind -- any attribute you want to include -- because of ourselves. No, it is entirely because of Christ who lives in us, as the Scriptures tell us, "Christ in you, the Hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27.) We are strong because He is strong in and through us as we trust Him by faith. We are loving because He is love in and through us. It is Him, it is all about Him, as we by faith trust Him to "will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13.)
Taking care of my Covid patient, I felt strong, powerful, almost invincible not because I am those things, but because of the natural and injected antibodies flowing in my body. In the same vein, we have the attributes of the Holy Spirit because He lives in us. Just as I trust those antibodies are helping me against Covid, we trust by faith the Holy Spirit works in us.
One of my favorite passage which speaks to this is found in Galatians:
and the life which I no live in the flesh
who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
Galatians 2: 20
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