Daily Devotionals

Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life

Devotional: July 25th

Storms have always fascinated me. Thursday evening our eldership at the Minorsville Christian Church met to discuss some of the church's needs. During our time in the meeting the skies were angrily erupting with a light show of such immense proportions that we actually received a phone call at the church building to warn us of its ferocity. Indeed, for most of the meeting the sky was illuminated.

Following the meeting all the elders left and I prepared to lock the back door to the fellowship hall where we had met. About that time a bolt of lightning crackled some distance North and thunder rolled for several seconds. That was when I realized that I was standard in a relatively open area placing a metal key into a metal lock with wet hands. I quickly turned the key in the lock and retracted it. A small glimmer of relief went through me and then the sky became as if it were daylight again.

All the way home I watched the skies as they lit up almost constantly. All I could think of was, "My, how mighty God's handiwork." The intense power that was being sent across the sky last night was enough to power the entire country for who knows how long. From the time of Ben Franklin trying to catch lightning in a jar to Marty and the Doc hooking up to the old clock tower Man has tried to harness God's power of electricity. Instead of harnessing it we have just tried to mimic it through manufacturing our own.

Such is our plight. Man sees what he thinks is God's power and feels like he needs the same power as God. Elijah on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:20-40) is a perfect example of this. God sent fire from heaven so intense that it immediately ignited the wood, the sacrifice and the rocks and evaporated the water around the altar in an instant. Yet, when Jezebel got news of the event she made it known that Elijah would be dead within twenty-four hours. She even swore by the gods. 1 Kings 19:1-3 Elijah ran for his life and ultimately came to a cave. There he hid from Jezebel's power.

God called for Elijah that night. Asked for Elijah's explanation as to the reason he was in hiding. Following Elijah's whining response (1 Kings 19:10) God sent such a powerful storm that it cause winds strong enough to break rocks off the mountain in which was the cave, shook the very foundations of the earth with an earthquake and then caused fire to consume the area. Then there was a still small voice. 1 Kings 19:11, 12 God's power was not evidenced in the great storm. God's power is not the explosiveness of a storm. God's power is His ability to bring the quietude of peace to a person's life following the storm. We, like Elijah, need to learn that.