What You Need Today…And Every Day

If you visit this blog regularly you know that I’m usually not at my best on Mondays and I don’t seek to veil that fact from anyone.  About 90% of the reason for my Monday woe is physical tiredness resulting from marathon Sundays.  For me it is well worth the price because Sundays are such a rich, dynamic experience of worship, ministry and meeting with the people of God.  Monday comes and it is usually much like many of your Mondays – alarm clock signals the beginning of a work week, the stubborn body loves the comfort of bed, the mind is sluggishly reluctant to engage duties and the prospect of dealing with the “have-to’s” of the week is less than appealing.

So you and I need faith.  You and I require empowerment.  You and I need our theology to kiss our reality and make something beautiful out of the more mundane elements of life.  I like what the psalmist wrote many centuries ago:

Awesome is God from His  sanctuary; the God of Israel—He is the one who gives power and strength to His people.  Blessed be God! – Psalm 68:35 {ESV}

I want to ask you to believe tenaciously that your God is awesome.  He doesn’t have to build up His awesomeness as the week progresses – He is explosively mind blowing at all times, even on Mondays.  As the psalmist wrote that He was Israel’s God, let me declare that He is mine also.  And yours.  This awesome God stoops in grace to you and whispers encouragingly, “Don’t forget that you belong to Me and I’m going to shepherd you today.  Don’t forget that I love to do that.  Don’t forget that I’m not just “God” but that I have made Myself YOUR God.  Don’t forget that today, child.”

The writer also adds that it is God who actively imparts power and strength to His people.  I love it when Scripture uses holy redundancy to make a point.  Power and strength?  Why not just power or just strength? Because when the Hebrew language is employed to emphasize a point the writers used repetition to serve in the same way that our modern day exclamation point (!!!) serves.  A quick Hebrew study of those two similar English words let me know that God’s power and strength on my behalf ranges from a loud shout to a bone-crushing defense.  How’s that for Monday!?  God clears a path for you today with both His voice of authority and hand of omnipotence.  You are not alone.  He’s not left you to figure it out as you go.  Your Father is not preoccupied somewhere else in the cosmos while leaving you to fend for yourself.  He’s here today.  He’s with you and delighting in the truth that you have been invited to rest in Him.  God doesn’t need your own power or your precision or your promises this day.  He’s as pleased with someone’s pitiful neediness which turns to Him just as He is with another’s holy dependence and determination which trusts Him for great and mighty things.  He’s the awesome God of the warrior in the same commitment that He is to the worrier.  As long as we are yielded to Him and seeking to rest in His power and strength then we do well to expect some fruitful hours today.

Mondays are not my favorite but I’m unwilling to wait until Tuesday before giving Him the glory.  We have seven days in each week and I simply cannot find anywhere in my bible or my heart where it is permissible to squander even one of those days in detachment from the awesome God of Jeff Lyle who gives power and strength to His people.  With the psalmist I say, “Blessed be God!”