The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
""The Power and the Price"
Part 2 - The Still and the Small
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21).
The "exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think… power that worketh in us" does so most often in far less than spectacular, obvious ways.
Consider the Apostle Paul who declared this glorious assurance of God's presence and working in our lives. How much of his life and ministry in Christ do we actually know? Very little. If we could measure the actual duration of his doings recorded in the New Testament, the cumulative span of events would be far less than 1% of all Paul did. Moreover, most of the Apostle's doings empowered by the Holy Spirit would not have appeared as obvious works of "exceeding abundantly above." Certainly, they attained to the standard as Paul walked with God. As in our lives, however, most of the Lord's working even in his chief apostle would have seemed common, ordinary, mundane, and with no overt evidence of the Lord Jesus' involved and active presence.
We must accustom ourselves to this quiet and inauspicious way of "exceeding, abundantly above," most often revealed in exceedingly quiet and inauspicious working. In a lifetime wherein we "walk by faith, not by sight," it must be this way (II Corinthians 5:7). Too much of the overt and the obvious would presently be harmful to our trust in God. Consider the disciples, who saw more wonder and glory in three years than we can imagine. Consider them also at the cross where the Lord Jesus died. Or rather, consider their absence: "they all forsook Him and fled" (Mark 14:50). More than one thousand days of sight, sound, and the sublime did not result in faithfulness. Nor would even more do the same in our hearts and lives. God obviously moves mountains and stops the sun in its tracks at times, and we rejoice when He seems so overt that we can almost reach out and touch the hem of His garment. Presently, however, we require His working to manifest in ways that may not seem to manifest. "We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2).
Life is about the heart, that is, our redeemed, born again spirits wherein the Spirit of the Lord Jesus dwells.
"Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life… the Lord looketh on the heart" (Proverbs 4:23; I Samuel 16:7).
We need God's outward and obvious working also, but to a far lesser degree than we require His "exceeding, abundantly above" power that reveals to us His heart, even as it forms and reveals the character of Christ in our hearts. We rightly rejoice when a mountain moves and the sun stops through the openly revealed "power that worketh in us." The more clearly we discover God and His ways, however, the more our hearts illuminated by the Spirit and informed by the Scriptures realize that the Christ who lived the preponderance of His earthly lifetime unknown to nearly all, lives the same quiet and inauspicious life in us. Like the immeasurably active power present in one atom, the hearts and lives of believers teem with the "exceeding, abundantly above… power that worketh in us." Such grace moves mightily in us as we trust and submit to God. It does so most often, however, in ways easily missed unless we discover, as did the prophet…
"Not in the wind… not in the earthquake… not in the fire… but a still small voice."
(I Kings 19:11-12)
Weekly Memory Verse
Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end."
(Ephesians 3:20-21)
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