Friday, March 28, 2014

Friday Thought -- March 28, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“Then the angel who talked with me returned and wakened me, as a man is wakened from his sleep. He asked me, ‘What do you see?’ I answered, ‘I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lights on it, with seven channels to the lights. Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.’ I asked the angel who talked with me, ‘What are these, my lord?’ He answered, ‘Do you not know what these are?’ ‘No, my lord,’ I replied. So he said to me, ‘This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the LORD Almighty.’” (Zechariah 4:1-6)

This was a strange vision that Zechariah received from the Lord. Scholars have spent years debating the meaning of all the details contained in this vision. But the main point is not in the details, the main point is the final phrase of this section: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord!

What do you rely upon in your life?

Do you really think that your own strength and your own talents and your own training can keep your life headed in the right direction and enable you to accomplish all that God wants you to accomplish? Zerubbabel was the leader of Israel and his strength wasn’t enough to accomplish what God wanted him to do when he brought the people of Judah back from their captivity in Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem. It was the enabling power of God by His Spirit that allowed Zerubbabel and the people he led to do what God gave them the opportunity to do.

If you think some he-man (or she-woman) effort will be enough for anything worthwhile, you’re deluded. Everything worth accomplishing, everything worth giving your life to, can be accomplished only by relying on the Lord. Strong men and strong women fall. Weak men and weak women who lean on the Lord succeed!!

Memorize it and repeat it to yourself often: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord!

His, by Grace,


Steve

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