SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
THOUGHT: I usually think of these verses with a big imagination. God can do so many incredible, blow-our-minds kinds of things. But today it occurs to me that sometimes the greatest power of God is seen in my lowest moments. The move-the-caution-tape and scoop-me-up-off-the-pavement-again moments. These resurrections are impossible to fathom, just like the infinite impossibility of one small cell differentiating into a human being containing an estimated 37 trillion cells. And yet, God brings life from places I feel dead.
Dr. J. Todd Billings, who lives with incurable cancer (The End of the Christian Life: How Embracing our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live [Brazos Press, 2020]), recently said, “I have learned that we don’t hope in our own ability to keep on hoping. We hope in God, who can make dry bones of hopelessness live again—the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead can surely resurrect my hope from the ashes, for we have something better to trust in than ourselves and our own heroic ‘faith.’ We have a God who does not forsake His work in us, because it is, after all, His work and His covenantal promise to be our God.”
What a relief. We don’t have to hope in our own ability to keep on hoping. We don’t have to trust in ourselves and our heroic attempts at faith. We just have to hope and trust in the God of resurrection.
All 37 trillion of my cells say ‘Amen. So be it!’
SONG: Rattle! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRNFLM4VX3Q
PRAYER: Your commitment, oh Great God, goes so far beyond my own. I am not in any way proud of me and my weaknesses. I am proud of you and your strength, made perfect in weakness. Thank you for the ways you’ve picked me up, even this week, as my hope hit the ground. Cause these bones to rattle for the sake of your great name and reputation!
Amy released a full-length book in early 2021, Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. Maybe you’d like to check it out here.
asipoblog.com 