ISAIAH 55:11

So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

TO PONDER

In the creation account in Genesis 1, God speaks all of creation into existence. The power associated with God’s voice and the words that come out of His mouth have the power to bring about a universe so large our human minds struggle to grasp its extent and majesty. And at the other extreme, the word of God created life in all its intricate complexity. In the book of Daniel, we meet a God who can protect three men thrown into a blazing inferno and then come out without any sign or smell of where they have been. We are not talking about a weak, impotent god here.

For most of human history, humans have acknowledged the existence of higher powers who we usually refer to as their gods. So, for the true God to distinguish Himself from the gods made in human likeness, the true God would demonstrate His unique power by impressive displays of that power – think of the plagues in Egypt for example.

Today, in the western world, human beings, and the knowledge they have acquired, have taken the place of God in many people’s lives. Humans can solve all the problems in this world and we don’t need the crutch of a God to solve our problems for us. You may have various views on how well we are doing with that.

So, the way God demonstrates His superiority over today’s man-made gods, especially in our western society, is to use broken, humble people to achieve His purposes. He takes people like us with our insecurities, hurts, fears and failures and changes and heals us by the power of that same very powerful word of His, and then takes our hand to lead us in doing some generally very ordinary things with Him, but achieving powerful results in the lives of others.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please take away my fear of allowing you free range in my life, to let you release your awesome power in me to change me so you can use me to share the joy of knowing you with those who don’t yet know you. Amen

Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping