Day 4

“Stretch out your hand”

—MATTHEW 12:13

“Arise from the dead”

—EPHESIANS 5:14 (NKJV)

From Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest:

“We all have any number of visions and ideals when we are young, but sooner or later we find that we have no power to make them real. We cannot do the things we long to do, and we are apt to settle down to the visions and ideals as dead, and God has come to say—‘Arise from the dead.’

When the inspiration of God does come, it comes with such miraculous power that we are able to arise from the dead and do the impossible thing. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life comes after we do the ‘bucking up.’ God does not give us overcoming life; He gives us life as we overcome. When the inspiration of God comes, and He says—‘Arise from the dead,’ we have to get up; God does not lift us up.

Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand—‘Stretch forth thy hand,’ and as soon as the man did so, his hand was healed, but he had to take the initiative. If we will do the overcoming, we shall find we are inspired of God because He gives life immediately.”

PRAYER: Lord, give each one of us today a glimpse into your plan for our lives. Lead us today by showing us what initiative it is that you want us to take, whether it be encouraging someone close to us, asking someone for forgiveness, confessing a specific sin to a trusted person, or something else.

Give us the courage to stretch out our hand to You so that we can be healed; and give us Your power today to walk out Your purposes for our lives.