Daily Devotionals for Difficult Days [46] Power from Above

POWER FROM THE SKY

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

Being Nice and Having Time

I have been pondering the connection between "being nice" and Coronavirus. People wherever they work or rest are more polite these days, or so it seems - and so I hear it reported.

The simple reason, surely, is that we and they have more time. Instead of the mad rush to be onto the next thing or at the next venue, people are taking their time, and the outcome to this slower pace seems to be a more pleasant demeanour.

That being as it may, we reach the end of Isaiah's comfort to God's fearful people with the promise of power from on high, Isaiah 40:28b-31:

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Let us ponder two wonderful truths,

God Never Tires

One of the most fundamental laws of nature is that energy (or matter) cannot be either created or destroyed. Stuff may change its character - energy can turn into matter and matter into energy, but the total sum of "stuff" never alters.

Quite a remarkable law when you think about it, for it says, in effect that no new creation is going on any more.

An equally fundamental law states that although the amount of "stuff" in the universe remains steady, it is over time becoming less and less useful. A simple way of putting this is that the universe is cooling down, and the long long term future of the universe is a cold death, unless God intervenes.

Take the sun as an example. A vast number of nuclear reactions take place every second resulting in its phenomenal heat output. But it is doing this at the expense of its fuel, hydrogen. Little by little, the fuel is being used up, and one day it will run out.

On the human scale, as we grow older we grow weaker too.

But, says Isaiah, there is Someone who "does not grow tired or weary."

We can say many wonderful things about God. He is the fount of his own existence. Unlike you and I who owe our origin to a mother and a father, God owes his existence to no-one except himself. He has forever been - an idea absolutely foreign and incomprehensible to the human mind.

And He is the source of limitless power. Should he want to add to the total "stuff" in the universe, he could do it. And when he gives of his power, his own might is not diminished. He breaks fundamental laws of nature, because he the one who created them, stands above nature.

There is an old English word which captures this aboveness, "ineffable." God is ineffably sublime.

God will give this Power to us

I hope my busy-bee Christian friends are tuning in today! The folks who are discovering that for one reason or another lockdown is more busy than normal. It may be parents working from home having to juggle work and parenting. It could be key workers who are called on for greater duties than normal.

Or it could be believers who are passing through an energy-draining trial.

Well the innefable power of God is no theoritical theology text book proposition.....

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

God promises to give his mighty power to those who hope in the Lord.

• The weary will be strengthened
• The weak will have increased power
• Those without natural strength on account of age will have renewed strength

All the above will soar effortlessly like eagles, run and not tire, walk and not faint!

God does not possess what he possesess selfishly. He gives it away, whether grace, comfort, or here, power. He is the fount of endless blessing and he has been pleased to funnel "every spiritual blessing" through his beloved Son to his much loved people.

Summing it All Up

The key to experiencing  this limitless law-breaking power, says Isaiah is hoping in the Lord: "those who hope in the Lord."

Hoping in the Lord is trusting in him alone. Hoping in the Lord is looking to him. Hoping in the Lord is praying for his limitless resources of divine other-worldly power.

Have you not experienced this in your own life? You have been tired and weak and yet called on by God to work for him. You have shot a prayer heavenward and it has been answered by remarkable supernatural energy and strength.

Paul could testify that "the energy Christ so powerfully works in me." (Colossians 1:29) and he wants us all to be strong in the Lord "and in his mighty power" (Epheisans 6:10) and prays that all of God's people will experience God's "incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.." (Ephesians 1:19-20)

So, let me ask you, are you feeling weak and not up to the task at hand?

The problem is not a lack of divine power. The problem is that you are not praying for divine power and strength! Or if you are praying, you are not asking in faith.

May one of the witnessing marks of God's people in these fear-sapping days be a people who are clearly energised with power from no high.

Ask for power!

For resurrection-quality power!


A SONG FOR THE DAY
Our song for the day is a reminder that God is the fountain of every blessing, so let us turn to him every moment of every day.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Here there by Thy great help I've come
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

Oh, that day when freed from sinning
I shall see Thy lovely face
Clothed then in the blood washed linen
How I'll sing Thy wondrous grace
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry
Take my ransomed soul away
Send Thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day

Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let that goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it

Seal it for Thy courts above.

Chris Rice

You can sing along HERE

A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Our prayer today is a paraphrase of the prayer Paul prays for God's people in Ephesians 1:15-23 

All-powerful Father in heaven,

We ask that you, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give to us all the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that we may know him better. 

We pray that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened in order that we may know the hope to which you have called us, the riches of your glorious inheritance in your holy people.

We ask that we will know God's incomparably great power for us who believe - the mighty strength God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  

The power that placed all things under the feet of Jesus and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

May we be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

We ask these things in the Name of Jesus,

Amen