... that [The Father] would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.
- Ephesians 3:16
I remember one time receiving a book as a gift. I wanted the book and felt very please to have been given it, and so I began reading it not long after the birthday that precipitated the giving. As I neared the half-way point of the book, I turned the page to find a surprise tucked away. From in between the pages fell a twenty dollar bill. Now in the mid-80s for this teen, getting twenty bucks for a gift was a big deal. Who am I kidding? It would be a big deal today at 44.
The point is that the book was a great present. I felt blessed, cared about and very happy when I got it. If that was all there was to my gift, I would still have been thrilled, and I would still remember the great friend who introduced me to Tolkien. She had no idea what she started there would turn into a life long love affair with fantasy adventure and a passion for Middle Earth and The Lord Of The Rings. It's a gift that changed my life. Made a difference in who I was and am. But although that would have been enough, it wasn't all of it.
If I had put the books on a shelf to keep them, rather than read them, I would never have found the twenty. After all, a book can be damaged reading it. I could have chosen to display the gift and read a copy checked out from the library, so as not to risk anything happening to the books that I held as precious. What a mistake that would have been. Katha gave me those books to read, not to display. And she put the money in the heart of the story, not just in the cover so that it would be a later treat. And God does the same thing.
The gift of forgiveness for the past and salvation is an awesome, life changing and most unbelievable gift. There could be nothing better or more costly that could be freely given. And we recognize it as precious, sometimes so much so that we forget that salvation is a gift to be used, not set up on display. That becoming God's child is the cover, not the heart of the gift. If that's all we ever received it would be worth more than we could ever imagine. It would still be the greatest gift ever. But within that gift, the gift of being made a child of God are other gifts that we will never find if we try to set up the first gift for display rather than tear into it and use it. One of those gifts is access to and permission to use the power of God Himself.
Ever read or watch Superman and wish you had his power and strength? Imagine being given the gift of a ring that made it possible to utilize Superman's power, without diminishing his or him in any way, whenever you were in need. Wouldn't that be awesome? But Superman is fiction, and not even Samson was that strong. There is no way for us to tap in to Superman's strength. But we have something better. God, the Creator of everything that ever was or ever will be, is not fictional and has all power. That same power that created you and raised Christ from the dead is available to us as a free gift to use whenever we need, in every area of personal weakness we can rely on His strength. And we don't have to wear or keep up with any special rings or trinkets. The power itself dwells within us who have, by faith in Jesus Christ, become the children of God.
Today, let us not put our salvation on a shelf and attempt to walk through our day in our own strength and power. Open the gifts Daddy gives. They were meant to be used. His power is our power and His grace becomes our answer to walking righteously through a life worth living.
No comments:
Post a Comment