DAILY DEVOTIONAL – April 8, 2020
“Faith of Steel“
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we turn to You and You alone for our strength and for our salvation. Keep us firm and steadfast in true faith and to life everlasting with You. Amen.
Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Devotional – “Faith of Steel”
Have you ever watched one of those specials on TV or on Netflix about deep sea exploration. I am always amazed by the deep sea submarines that are used to plummet to the bottom of the sea floor. In order to protect the humans and equipment inside, these submarines are made out of ultra thick steel strong enough to withstand the incredible pressures of the ocean that can be upwards of 15,000 pounds per square inch. To put that into perspective, the everyday pressure we experience hovers somewhere around 15 pounds per square inch.
As incredible as these deep water submarines are, they are not what I find most fascinating about deep sea exploration. While a human requires state of the art technology and layers of hardened steel in order to survive, in every documentary you see these incredible fish and other sea animals that seem to be swimming absolutely carefree right outside the windows of the submarine. The pressures of the ocean deep would crush a bowling ball with ease , yet these fish swim around without no fear and no adverse reaction. I have always wondered how that is, so I took a little time to look into it.
I am no biologist or deep sea expert, but here is what I did find out. The anatomy of deep sea creatures is fashioned to apply equal and opposite pressure from within their bodies and works against the pressures working on them. Their exteriors are soft and pliable, but their inward parts are tough as steel.
As I thought about this, the words of St Paul in Ephesians 3 from out text today rang through my head. Paul prays that God would grant that we would be “strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend the love of Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God.”
You know friends, when the pressures of this life press upon us and we feel like we are sinking into the depths of the sea, our tendency is to try and harden our exterior, steel our ourselves and keep the pressures at bay like a submarine. We try to figure things out, push harder and harder, fight fire with fire and so on. The undesirable consequence of dealing with the pressures of life this way is that we can become callous, cynical and even hard hearted. Trying to harden ourselves against the pressures of life only imprisons hope. However, when we allow Christ to come into our hearts through faith, when stay in the Word of God and allow it to transform our minds and give us eternal perspective, that is when (like the fish of the deep sea) we are able to not only remain alive under great pressure, but thrive!
As Paul says in verses 20-21, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly that all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
I also very much like what the Apostle John says in his 1st letter. He says in 1 John 4:4, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome [them], for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Our hope and the strength that we need to live a life of joy and freedom even in the midst of life’s many pressures comes not from steeling our nerves or hardening ourselves, but instead comes from softening our hearts towards Christ and allowing His Word to dwell within our hearts through faith so that as Paul says, we would “know what is the breadth and length and height and depth” of His love and power. Only the power of God, who split the Red Sea and allowed the Israelites to walk across on dry land, is powerful enough to see us through the pressures of life. Only the love and power of Jesus who walked on top of the raging sea can keep our heads above water when it pours. Only the power of the Risen Christ can pull us from the depths of the grave, set us free and give us everlasting life in the presence of God where there is no more pain and no more tears.
Thanks for joining me for another time of devotion in God’s Word, and remember that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
