Devotion for Wednesday, March 4, The First Week of Lent
Romans 4:17 | …the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead
and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
The extremity of Abraham’s case is the thing to give us hope. Abraham had no descendants, and no hope of having descendants. It was not a matter of taking a little something and kneading it into something bigger. It was not the leaven in the lump nor the seed in the soil. It was rather a matter of starting from zero and traveling to… an infinitude of provision.
God’s grace can do this in our lives. It can carry us from the very furthest possible point of total hopelessness to the pools of cool water. We know when God is really at work when the human givens are at their lowest ebb.
Where is the deadness in your family? What relationship is now a flatliner, with not even the ashes of love left to be stirred up? What is the deadest of your hopes? What hope have you given up forever? And in your personality, what virtues are simply not there? Do you have nothing to go on in the department of patience, say, or forbearance? What Abraham’s story thrillingly declares is that deadness’ resuscitation is the normal ministry of God.
PRAYER
Dear Lord, manifest Easter
in an area where our life lies in the grave.