A scene you cannot easily escape. The clear night sky breaks for a singular object. Our eyes immediately find the moon up above. For a few brief moments, the overwhelming darkness has been replaced by the magnificent light. It’s a scene like this that causes us to pause.
I find myself most days trying to quell the anxiety over minuscule issues. My thoughts range from the “not getting enough done” to the “how in the world will this happen?” Chasing anxiety and worry looks far more like a hamster on a wheel than an Indy car race. Rather than making progress, we exert energy in a fixed place.
Seeing the moon speaks to us. We did not organize the process of getting to a full moon. None of us tilted the earth and measured the rotation for our view. Without our planning, control or effort—we behold this glorious sight.
The apostle Paul prays that his readers would have power in Ephesians 3:14-21. Verse 20 sums up his prayer, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” In the prior verses, he asks that God would strengthen the readers to grow through the Holy Spirit and to know the limitless love of God. The realization of this passage is that we were never asked to live life from our resources. Each day, we need more than ourselves.
This is grace. The moment we realize God’s presence. He invites us to experience his power and love. Ephesians 3:14-21 practically meets us in the here and now. Those times when we think we go at life alone. Grace tells us that God is closer than we could ever imagine.
When we look at the moon, we get a glimpse of the God who can do more than we ask or imagine. For many of us we find ourselves preoccupied with our lack of resources. So we compensate only to realize that we battle these same thoughts of anxiety over and over again. Paul’s prayer leads us to see that God will resource us with strength from the Holy Spirit. Rather than attempting to do it on our own, He has invited us to know Him.
Paul David Tripp in New Morning Mercies says this:
When we remember God’s grace, you tell yourself that you’re not alone, that you’re not left to the small batch of your own resources, and that you have been graced with al that you need right here, right now to be what God has called you to be and to do what God has chosen for you to do.
Grace has met you today through the power of the Holy Spirit in you. We do not have to live believing the lies of worry and anxiety. The One who created the moon has provided us power beyond ourselves.
Photo used with permission by Chris Mason Design.