2 Chronicles 7:1 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

We’ve never experienced anything like this, and it’s probably a good thing! It is hardly surprising that the people prostrated themselves on the ground after this, as it records in verse three. We tend to forget that God being omnipotent means, literally, that He has all power. This was a very minor thing for Him, but it certainly had massive impact on the people! So why doesn’t He do things like this more often? I think it’s because He wants our love and obedience to be by choice, by faith rather than by coercion. Also, even being present for a display like this didn’t keep Solomon, even, from idolatry, done to please his multiple foreign wives, as the memory of this event faded into the past. Big events, and certainly big encounters with God, are markers in our lives, and we are to be grateful for them, but in the final analysis it is the daily faithfulness that matters most. I am reminded of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They both said that they were able to “drink the cup that Jesus would drink,” and Jesus said they would do that. (Matthew 20:22-23) That was certainly referring to His sacrificial death, but James gave his life in a moment, by being beheaded, (Acts 12:2) and John was the only one of the original 12 apostles to die a natural death. Both of them gave their lives for Christ and the Gospel, but James had the much easier path! We are to ask and allow the Holy Spirit to work the events of our life into our hearts to grow and transform us as God intends, not allowing such things to be just a “flash in the pan,” as the idiom goes. God desires faithfulness above all.

This is something I’ve learned over the years, as faithfulness has been demanded of me. How faithful I have been is for God to decide, because He has certainly been faithful to me! I too have desired big things, dramatic moments and huge victories, but that hasn’t been the path the Lord has laid out for me. That said, I have seen others who, like Solomon, have had such big events and still have strayed badly. I’d rather be a faithful nobody! It is always a huge blessing to realize I have just been used by God, or even that God is in the process of using me. Such things fill me with gratitude. I don’t expect more than 20 more years on this earth, and my focus is more and more on hearing my Lord say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21, 23) That will be glory indeed!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for getting me through the packed week last week, and for the relatively slow week this week, before another packed week following that. Thank You that I don’t have to be anxious about any of it! Guide me as I take care of the things that are on today’s schedule, that everything may go as You desire, accomplishing Your purposes on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!