(This week’s devotions are based on Sunday’s message: Win the Day…Fly the Kite – LISTEN HERE)
Imagine the feeling that Homan Walsh had at age 16 when his kite spanned the river gorge and an individual on the other side of the river was able to catch his kite and secure the string to a tree. Mission accomplished! What maybe seemed like a simple contest and simple task was not your usual kite flying outing.
Did he think he could do it? I would guess so or a) he wouldn’t have entered the competition and b) he would have given up after the first failure.
Believing you can do something is important.
I was listening to a reel by Tom Brady indicating his path to NFL stardom was not a constant success. He was a back up quarterback on a 0-8 high school team. He was a late recruit to college and drafted in the 6th round of the NFL draft with skepticism if he would even make the team.
He indicated that in order to be a quarterback you have to believe in yourself. You don’t want to step into a huddle and exude a lack of confidence. You need the other 10 players to believe, “You can get the job done.”
This is true in life and can be left to just the secular component. However, as God’s people we have an even greater reason to have confidence…not just in ourselves…but in God who raised Jesus from the dead.
We truly can expect the incredible to happen.
We may not always know what it will be or how it will show up, but as we are connected to the God of all power, our confidence and expectations can be great. Mark Batterson wrote in his book Win the Day, “God wants do things in you that are beyond your ability, beyond your resources, beyond your imagination.”
Do we limit God? Do we keep God’s ability in the realm of our abilities and awareness? I have to admit that I too often do.
So what’s the cure? How do we keep a perspective that God can do incredible things beyond our own ability?
I don’t know if Homan Walsh had a vision for what his kite string would start, but in order for the contest to be won, his string had to be secured on both sides to a tree. Later solid anchors would hold the cable that would become the suspension bridge across the gorge. We may think the string or the bridge is the incredible thing, but rather what makes that string significant is what it is anchored to.
So in our lives, what our confidence and hope is anchored to is so important. The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 3:14-22: For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
We cannot grasp the fullness of God’s power until we appreciate the fullness of his love. For his power is exhibited best in his acts of love on our behalf. The power of God created the world in which we live. The power of God orchestrated history to carry out his plan. The power of God brought Jesus into the world to live. The power of God held Jesus to the cross. The power of God brought Jesus out of the tomb alive. And why did he do all this and more? Because he LOVES you!
The width, length, height and depth of God’s love is hard to grasp, but we get glimpses of it as he acts in power to secure our eternity with him in heaven.
If this is where our hearts are anchored and we marvel at his incredible love, we can more expect the incredible work of God to show itself!
Apply: What will help today to anchor your day in the love of Christ? List five things that you know and experience as God’s love for you today?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for showing the greatness of your power by showing how much you love me. AMEN.