Verse of the Day for October 25

This is a prayer. Paul is telling the Colossians what he asks God for them, and in the middle of it is a sentence with enormous words: Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power.

You expect the sentence to end with miracles. All that power, for what? Paul finishes it: unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. The glorious power of God is spent, in this prayer, on helping ordinary believers be patient.

That changes what strength looks like. It is not always the clenched fist that breaks through. Sometimes it is the open hand that waits, that bears with a difficult person for the hundredth time and does not turn bitter.

The next verse explains how the hand stays open. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance. An inheritance is received, not earned. Thanksgiving keeps the hand open because it remembers that everything good came as a gift.

In the slow line at the bank, with the neighbour whose generator roars all night, beside the relative who repeats the same complaint, patience with joy is not weakness. It is the power of God doing exactly what Paul prayed it would do.

A gentle answer may be the strongest thing you do today.

Thanksgiving keeps a tired hand from closing into a fist.