Our Transforming God
If you would you like a summary mantra for life, try these verses:
“Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, And You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, We thank You And praise Your glorious name” I Chronicles 29: 11 – 13.
Pause and ask yourself if this is descriptive of the God you profess to believe in. If so, act like it when things seem to go wrong. That kind of God can control things good and bad. Relax and rejoice. When you respond to Him as one having such traits and resources then alacrity replaces anxiety.
An illustration of His willingness and ability is illustrated by author and artist John Ruskin in his book entitled “Modern Painters” he tells of a footprint in a manufacturing town. It was the personification of impurity. It is composed of four elements: clay mixed with soot, a little sand, and water. If the four left to follow their own instinctive qualities of unity would become clear and hard. They gathered light in splendid ways. Gathering only the blue rays of the sun they produced a sapphire.
The sand arranges itself in a mysterious way and infinitely fine particles which when properly aligned reflect the blue, green, purple, and red rays in their greatest beauty called an opal.
The soot becomes one of the hardest substances in the world and is transformed from its blackness into a substance reflecting all the rays of the sun at once. The vivid blaze of reflected light from the solid substance is called a diamond.
The purified water becomes a dew drop or a crystalline star of snow.
If God can refine and redefine the impurities of a footprint surely He can transform the vilest of sinners, and meet the needs of the most disadvantaged of people.
There is a line from an old hymn with the appeal to “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” The relief does not come from taking the burden to the Lord, but in leaving it there.
You may be facing a challenge that suggests a hopeless end. The God who awaits to help you offers endless hope. It is boundless.
His transforming power is available to meet your personal challenges. Your puddle of mud can be transformed into an assortment of attributes.
The concluding verse from the Lord’s Prayer is a summary of this passage. “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.” (Matthew 6:13).
Now go back and read once more the paragraph opening this post. Read it as to the Lord.