Summon your power, O God; show us your strength, O God, as you have done before. (Ps. 68:28)
HAVE YOU KNOWN someone who lived in the past? Perhaps it was the friend who reveled in high school triumphs long into his thirties, or the singer who told and retold the story of her hit song from half a lifetime ago. Others live in the present, blithely refusing to entertain either regrets or consequences. Still others are entranced by the future. Their dreams, hopes, and plans may be unrealistic and unrealized, yet they dominate their thinking.
It’s easy for churches to make those same mistakes. Some recall only what God did fifty years ago during the last great revival or building program or growth spurt. Others think only of today, paying neither honor to yesterday’s sacrifice nor heed to tomorrow’s urgency. And a few are entirely future-minded, placing all hope for life and salvation in heaven.
The psalmist offered a gift by showing the unity of God’s work in the past, present, and future. The same God who parted the Red Sea is the God whom we worship in this current procession of faith and who will intervene to meet our needs in the future.
We rob ourselves of two-thirds of God’s character and power by limiting our thinking about Him to only one tense. He is active in all three tenses. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).
Name something God has done and tell how it affects you today.
Lawrence W. Wilson is the author of A Different Kind of Crazy (WPH) and coauthor of The Long Road Home (WPH). He lives in central Indiana and blogs at www.lawrencewilson.com.
© 2018 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
