365 Days with God - Day 121: Powerful

I'm giving myself a challenge. Read the Bible each day for a whole year, following the ESV Study Guide 1-year plan. Each day, I will post whatever God has revealed to me in His Word, and how it is changing me. A friend of mine once said that nothing has changed her life as much as reading the bible each day - and I'm excited for how this will change me. Join me on an adventure into the heart of God - and day by day, we can learn more about who He is and what that means to us!

- Andy Catts

Day 120, April 20, 2014

Readings: Psalm 120, Leviticus 27, Isaiah 36, Isaiah 37, Ephesians 5:1-21

Since Easter is nearly over, and you've probably had your fill of "He is Risen: He is Risen Indeed!" today, I won't write about Easter. I will say this: God is marvelously wonderful and graceful. He has given us more in Jesus than we could ever hope to deserve. But the God who raised Jesus from the dead is powerful. And He is a God who commands respect. He came in humility and gentleness, but you cannot be gentle unless you also have the power to destroy.

And there are many who disdain God - thinking Him weak, impotent or non-existent. That's a mistake.

"Whom have you mocked and reviled? 
Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, with my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon,
to cut down it's tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses,
to come to its remotest height,
its most fruitful forest.

I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.
Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way by which you came. (Isaiah 37:23-24, 28-29)

God is not weak. Despite all our advancements and accomplishments, our technology and our understanding, we have nothing on the Creator of everything. No matter what we have done, we are powerless before the storm, before disease and death. We are weak. We are powerless. But God cared enough to send Jesus for us. To rescue us. Despite our haughty attitudes and prideful rejection of Him who is in control of all things, God loved us.

And now he asks us to trust Him. Not to trust in our wise words, knowledge or strategies. His power is perfected in our weakness, His strength is sufficient for us. We worship an Almighty God, who conquered sin and death, and that is what we celebrate on Easter. Let's not forget who He is the rest of the year.