The Source of Power

 

1 Samuel 17; Psalm 33; Lamentations 2; Romans 15

“The world has yet to see what God can do with one person wholly dedicated to Him.”

This quote is attributed to several people but no matter who said it, the challenge remains the same. One example is illustrated in the narrative of David and Goliath. This young man had been anointed by Samuel and “from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power” (16:13).

This means the source of the God-centeredness, the source of the courage, of the unerring aim, the great victory, and the elevation of the name and glory of God is not that David was wholly dedicated but that God was wholly involved. The human tendency is to admire the person rather than realize what the Holy Spirit can do.

David’s songs glorify God and so they should. David knew that without Him, he would be nothing:

“The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” (Psalm 33:16–22)

There is another power that human tendency tends to forget. When disaster comes, we blame others, or fate, or Satan, yet the writer of Lamentations realized that the wrath of God is as incredibly awesome and powerful in what it can do. He writes of disaster upon disaster and summarizes with this:

You summoned as if to a festival day my terrors on every side, and on the day of the anger of the Lord no one escaped or survived; those whom I held and raised my enemy destroyed. (Lamentations 2:22)

Just like being invited to a party, God’s Spirit invited fear into the heart of this writer as he observed the chaos that destroyed his people. Even though God helps and shields His people, because of their great sin and rebellion, no one escaped the consequences.

Why all this? Why the stories that seem contradictory? God loves His people? God destroys His people? For me, knowing the hatred of God for sin has a powerful effect on my value system — I also hate sin. Knowing the love of God for His people draws me to love His people too, even as I see the power of sin that can bring terrible consequences to their lives and to my life as well. The NT brings out the ‘why’ of the OT with this thought:

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

God’s blessing makes me His child. God’s wrath on sin makes me hate sin too. God’s love draws me to trust Him, to turn away from that which He hates and turn toward knowing and doing His will. His love encourages me to endure, to deal with my own sin, to love others who also fall short. The idea of being wholly committed to Him is not mere lofty ambition but at the heart of faith. The problem is that when I think I have arrived the Holy Spirit uses life to show me where I fall short. And in all of this, He teaches me that total commitment is not always about killing Goliath but about putting to death the giants in my own heart.

APPLY: Be thankful that the blessing of God includes the tests of disasters, of falling short and finding again and again that by His grace He keeps picking me up and helping me think His thoughts. I may never conquer the rebellion of others against Him like David did, but His goal for David and for me is to transform His people into the image of His Son. That is what God wants — yet it happens only to those who love Him.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

Today I’m so glad to be His child, in His family, and aware that He can do whatever He desires in the lives of each one of us.