MONDAY June 10th
Ephesians 1:19
‘. . . and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe . . .’
The ESV has verses 15-21 as two sentences, but the NIV breaks it up into six sentences, one of those breaks being here at the end of verse 19 ‘and his incomparably great power for us who believe.’
Remember that Paul has prayed that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him’ and as we come to verse 19 it is that we also may understand ‘what is the immeasurable greatness of his power’ or as the NIV puts it ‘his incomparably great power’ that is for us who believe. Now in the next verse, or sentence as in the NIV, Paul uses an illustration to describe how great this power is, by considering the resurrection of Jesus, but we will turn to that in the next devotion. For today we will consider some other examples of the greatness of God’s power.
As I prepare this devotion, I have just been reading for a future ministry the account of the exodus of the children of Israel from out of the land of Egypt, and verse 6 of Exodus 15 says ‘Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power. . .’
There is absolutely nothing, whether a person, a principality or a power or any man-made invention that can match the power of almighty God. And God has demonstrated this great power in many ways, consider the power of his voice, which spoke what is into being, the same power that holds everything together.
Going back to the chapter in Exodus, his power had been demonstrated by delivering the Children of Israel, while at the same time destroying their enemies. That is amazing, but Paul says about his power toward us who believe, that is we who have responded to the wonderful gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The power that originally created all things has also recreated us or made us anew in Christ Jesus, the power that destroyed the armies of Egypt, has destroyed the enemy of our souls, and has destroyed the sting of death which is sin. The same power that caused the walls of Jericho to fall, was present with Daniel in the den of lions, with the three Hebrew lads in the fiery furnace, and the same power as Paul says that was worked in Christ when God raised him from the dead is the power that Paul prayed that the believers would come to know and to understand more. Power to enable us to live victorious Christian lives that we need to be living in our anti-God society. I don’t know about you, but I willingly admit, I need that power in my life today.
I remind us, that it is ‘not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD of hosts’. It is his Spirit that brings to us or gives to us the power we need to walk in this world today.