June 30

“The power is God Himself.  ‘Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.’ (1 Thes. 5:24)...We can rest and live.”  Eugenia Price, S.P.S., 6/30

Hannah Whitall Smith says we are given a weapon to fight temptation--the word of God. Jesus met each temptation he faced with the word of God.   This is the “sword of the Spirit” Paul speaks of as part of the “armor of God”.  But the power comes from God.  It is God Himself who does our fighting.  We must remember this in whatever we lay our hands to.   We may have a weapon or a tool with which to fight or work in our hands--but it is God who supplies the power to use it effectively.  I’ve always been one who desires to work efficiently.  I will plan out my errands so that I don’t have to do any back tracking or waste time sitting at a left-turn light.  I will combine activities whenever possible--like listening to the radio while ironing or folding clothes while watching TV.  I’ll even read the newspaper during commercials!  You would think with all this efficiency-mindedness I’d be a prime candidate for God to use!  All He’d have to do is show me the tool and then supply the power.  But no, I all too often insist on supplying the power myself.  Maybe I need to keep reminding myself I’m not on a bicycle, but instead am on a motorbike!

“Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which  you quench all the flaming darts of the evil one, And take the helmet of salvation, and sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit...”  Ephesians 6:13-18a