Focus

Pay attention to the tension in your body. Let go of it and any expectations to do anything other than God’s will today. Prepare yourself to hear God’s word.

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Read

Ezekiel 31:1-12 (NRSV)

In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: Mortal, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes:
Whom are you like in your greatness?
Consider Assyria, a cedar of Lebanon,
with fair branches and forest shade,
and of great height,
its top among the clouds.
The waters nourished it,
the deep made it grow tall,
making its rivers flow
around the place it was planted,
sending forth its streams
to all the trees of the field.
So it towered high
above all the trees of the field;
its boughs grew large
and its branches long,
from abundant water in its shoots.
All the birds of the air
made their nests in its boughs;
under its branches all the animals of the field
gave birth to their young;
and in its shade
all great nations lived.
It was beautiful in its greatness,
in the length of its branches;
for its roots went down
to abundant water.
The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it,
nor the fir trees equal its boughs;
the plane trees were as nothing
compared with its branches;
no tree in the garden of God
was like it in beauty.
I made it beautiful
with its mass of branches,
the envy of all the trees of Eden
that were in the garden of God.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because it towered high and set its top among the clouds, and its heart was proud of its height, I gave it into the hand of the prince of the nations; he has dealt with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out. Foreigners from the most terrible of the nations have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken in all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth went away from its shade and left it.

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Reflect

We all are powerful in some form or fashion. Maybe we got a “leg-up” in life, a promotion or a raise, more money, bigger house, more things to call our own. Our power grows and our pride makes us think we can leave behind the very people who love us and probably helped us along our way: family, friends, neighbors, co-workers… We want more, and we don’t want to share. We’re busy building our kingdom. We might ride the wave of power for a while, but things tend to catch up with us.

What if we turned our power and pride into service and love, put our power to work in ways that would glorify God? I daresay our “personal kingdom” would be a much happier place, and definitely more pleasing to God. Our service and love doesn’t have to be anything earth shattering…providing transportation to someone who needs to get the doctor or the grocery store, organizing a group of people to take care of a need in our church or community. Sometimes our power is best used in small ways that have a large impact.

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Pray

Lord, keep me mindful of how rich and powerful your love is when I share it and use it to help others. Amen.

Go with God.