MORNING GLORY 36
The power went out at my house first thing on a Monday morning. What a way to start a new week! I was just getting ready to tackle my ever-growing to do list, most of which relied completely on electricity and internet. Launch our new calendars! Tackle marketing ads! Make a dent in that mountain of laundry! Get groceries at target! Mail orders! The list goes on. Then a little after 8 o’clock, the lights flickered a few times and went out completely. In a matter of seconds my big plans for the day shifted into gratitude for natural daylight and a fully charged phone battery. Then it struck me how much we rely on power. It literally runs our lives. But what if we relied more on the power of God — His Spirit — living in us? We have a full tank we can draw from every day from the Lord. If only we would rest in Him, letting our batteries recharge by His endless supply of power.
As I waited for the power to (maybe, hopefully) come back, I opened my daily reading Bible and read 1 Chronicles 29. In this passage, King David is blessing his son, Solomon, as the next king of Israel, and commissioning him to build the Temple of the Lord. Verses 10-11 stood out flashlight bright as I sat at my kitchen table.
Then David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly:
“O Lord, the God of our ancestor Israel, may You be praised forever and ever! Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is Yours, O Lord, and this is Your kingdom. We adore you as the One who is over all things.”
Yours is the power.
Not even a few minutes after reading these verses, the power came back on in my house! But these morning moments without power opened a window of time for me to be still and read. I was reminded true, Gospel-breathed power does not come from our own capability and agendas, but solely from pressing into God. He’s reaching out to us, if we would look up. Sometimes it takes the world’s light switching off to shake us awake, unplug, and reset our hearts to rely on God’s power to light up our lives. After all, He is the true, ever-illuminating and never-dimming Light of the world! The endlessly buzzing, neon glow the world self manifests is draining, friend. And it always, always begs for more. I’m picturing bugs swarming a light at night. But Jesus, our everlasting Light, leads us by His Word. Psalm 119:105 says that His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Instead of being bugs stuck hovering over a stagnant light, we have the ignited power of Christ living inside us! And this light is connected to power that propels us forward into a life lived from the Spirit.
I don’t know about you, but I need to consciously, intentionally, surrender my self-propelled power source and solely rely on the Lord. What if we lived from this place of light fueled by His power everyday? Is it possible? Yes and amen it is! Everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to God and He is over all things (see the verses above). As God’s children we belong to Him with a connection unlike anything the world can offer. We can receive His power and reflect His light for His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. May it be so.