Imagine being employed at a nuclear power plant.
Maybe you serve in administration or prepare food in the employee cafeteria, or manage safety checks. Whatever your role, I imagine you are hyper aware of the magnitude of power being produced, contained and directed in your work place.
But do you actually FEEL all that power as you walk about during your shift? Most likely not, but you certainly believe it exists and respect it.
We, as believers, actually house a greater force than the sum of all nuclear power available to our world. His name is God and he is in us through his spirit.
Some of us feel bothered that we don’t always FEEL or sense God’s presence or power with or within us. Maybe we read of experiences of some Bible characters and envy them. For my friends and family members who long to encounter God in that more tangible way, I plead with the Lord, that until they do, they may walk by faith, trusting in God’s love and stockpiled power and provision for them.
Not hearing personally from God can feel dark and heavy. Job certainly was a man who despaired ever of hearing from the God he trusted.
Do you know a fellow believer who moves in and out of this kind of shadowy fear, because of oppressing thoughts? Someone who struggles to REST in the God-given power received when God transferred OUT of the gloomy Kingdom of Isolating Fear and Shame and into the Kingdom of Light, Hope and Family Belonging?
Pastor Scotty Smith calls these places where some dwell ‘waterless pits of gloom’.
There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death, Prisoners in misery and chains….in misery…..Psalm 107:10 NASB 1995
But God be praised, Jesus came to set them and us FREE!
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, Luke 4:18 NLT
Just as those in the nuclear power industry do not doubt but rather respect the energy at their disposal, so too WE should rest in the sure knowledge of God’s power available to us by faith through his spirit given to us.
Oh, dear friends, I pray that this Easter Sunday, all of us may feel the glory of a new kind of shade and light. Not a heavy, gloomy oppressive shadow but a restful, refreshing shade and an energizing, restorative light.
Linger here in this place of acceptance and accept the invitation to fellowship with Jesus in his banquet house.
From Song of Solomon 2:3b-4, here are the lyrics for Bairstow’s choral peace that will feed your soul and heart.
I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
Reflections on God's Word 
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