The ultimate power source

I Chronicles 29: 12

Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things.  In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. NIV

I’m back in David’s prayer in Chronicles.   I love this.

David acknowledges that wealth comes from God.  So often, we think of ourselves making our own fortunes, our own way in the world, but, all wealth is a gift from God.

Honor comes from God.  We think of honor as coming from others, in recognition of our accomplishments, but all honor comes from God, the ruler of all things, the ultimate power broker.

And then, In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.

Strength, not always as the world sees it.  It’s perhaps the quiet strength to endure hardships, while continuing to honor Him;  strength to step out of your comfort zone to do His work;  strength when you are weak — because He is strong.

All good comes from God.  I know that.  I’ll honor that.

And, that’s what I’ll think about today.

Juggling … not in my job description

I Chronicles 29:11

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.  Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.  NIV

God made everything.

Such a simple statement, and yet, so profound.

I started college as a chemistry major.  I simply loved the concept of the periodic table, and how the addition of just one proton, one neutron and one electron to an atom made the thing a completely different substance.  As I got to study subatomic chemistry, I was even more amazed.  Each day, I felt I got to peep behind the curtain at God’s workroom and the building blocks that He had used to form the universe.

Today, I’m not a chemist.  But, I’ve not forgotten the lessons that I learned:  Everything in heaven and in earth is His.  He made it all.  He is the Master Craftsman, the Owner, the Creator and the Ruler of the Universe.

If I am to keep my life here in balance, I must keep Him squarely at the center.  He is the axis on which everything else turns.  When I acknowledge that, when I keep that perspective, my life works.  When I try to put something else in the center, when I exalt something else above God, even unconsciously, my life gets out of kilter and things begin to spin out of control, and then I start to worry about keeping all the balls in the air.

Keeping the balls in the air is NOT MY JOB.  I didn’t create the balls, and I didn’t create the gravity that pulls them earthward.  My job is to do God’s work here.  To love others and to show God’s love to them.

Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.

That’s what I’ll think about today.

He is.

I Chronicles 29:10b

Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. NIV

God, our God, has always been.  And, He always will be.  Revelation 22:13 says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” NIV

David acknowledges that here in Chronicles, when he praises God “from everlasting to everlasting.”

There has not been a moment in my life when God was not there … there never, ever will be.  God is trustworthy.  God is permanent. God is … God.

That’s what I’ll think about today.

Do God’s work

1 Chronicles 28:20

David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work.  Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you.  He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.”  NIV

God had given David all of the plans for the temple, but, David was not the one to build it, his son Solomon was.  Just before this verse, David has given Solomon all of the detailed plans, including weights and dimensions for the temple and everything that was to be in it.

In the next chapter, David explains to the people, that Solomon is “young and inexperienced.”  Perhaps that is the reason for David’s words here in this verse.

For some time now, I’ve been thinking that I would like to get an exhaustive commentary of the Bible.  This verse brings that issue up again for me.  I have questions about David’s words here that I cannot answer for myself.  When I look at this verse in the Message translation, it says, “Take charge!  Take heart!  Don’t be anxious or get discouraged.  God, my God, is with you in this; he won’t walk off and leave you in the lurch.  He’s at your side until every last detail is completed for conducting the worship of God.” MSG  All of this sounds very much like a faithful father encouraging his son.

But, I keep stumbling over the part where it says that God will be with Solomon until the work is completed.  Won’t He always be with Solomon?  I can’t remember enough of Solomon’s story at the moment to figure that out.  I know that he completes the temple, and I know that he asks God for wisdom and is a wise and well-loved ruler, but, I don’t remember whether he went off the rails later in life.  At some point, when I have more time, I will look into this.  But, if I had an exhaustive commentary, I am thinking that the answer would be there … I will look into that, too.

For the moment, however, I will focus on the part of this verse that speaks to me.  Solomon was given a monumental task.  Solomon knew that this was God’s work, that God had ordained it, and that doing this work would be wholly in God’s will.

David tells Solomon not to worry, because God will be with him as he accomplishes the task.

Today, God still has lots of work to be done here on earth.  I used to have a pastor who said that one of the reasons God created us was for us to be His hands and His feet here on earth.  We need to be about doing God’s work — helping others in whatever ways they need it, and accomplishing the tasks that God has ordained for us.

If we are working to do that, we have nothing to fear or worry about.

I will think about that today … and I’ll also visit the bookstore.