You were listening to Battle Ready. This is a five-minute daily devotional with your hosts,

Aaron McManus and Erwin Raphael McManus. Good morning, Dad. How are you doing?

I'm doing great. How are you doing today? I'm doing well. I'm going to open us up with some scripture,

Philippians 413, and says, I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

I love this verse. It's one of the first verses I ever interacted with as a follower of Christ in a really significant

way because I was going to speak publicly for the first time in a little group, in a youth

group on a Wednesday night, and I was so nervous and so afraid.

And this woman named Barbara Price came up to me and handed me a gift. And she had crocheted

this verse into a little frame. And it said, Irwin can do all things through Christ who strengthens

him. Now, I'd never seen that verse in my entire life. So the first time I ever

heard this verse, it had my name in it. And it was so personal and so powerful that right before I

walked on that stage to speak to a group for the first time really in my life, I had this statement echoing in my soul

that I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. And I think it's this incredible

tension of it's Christ who's strengthening us, but it's I can do all things. And so it's not the

elimination of our personal agency. And it's not the elimination of our personal agency.

And it's not the absence of God's powerful activity.

It's agency and activity coming together.

It's us and God doing something extraordinary in that moment.

You know, I'm someone who has always been highly OCD.

I think OCD runs in our family. And one of the ways that, I mean, I was super OCD, like the character monk on that TV show on USA, where you could touch everything, to the lights on and off. And, you know, he was very particular. And as a young person, was really hard. I was also like five to, two, you 5 to 80 pounds in junior high. And I remember

to join the basketball team, I had to run the cross country 5K. I'm a runner now, but I was not a

runner then. I was a little chubby shrimp. And I remember like a good Catholic, but I was a Christian

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