LIKE AN EARLY-SPRING SUNRISE that quietly shifts the whole winter landscape into retreat and also brings hope to a solitary sparrow that stayed and rode out the storms of winter, the renewing power of God impacts both the very large and the very little. The Psalmist suggests as much. He says, "Thou [God] renewest the face of the earth" (Ps. 104:30). On a much different scale, he also prays, "Renew a right spirit within me" (Ps. 51:10). God's renewing power has a way of resolving concerns that are planet-wide—and sparrow-small.
That's good to know. Because as the 21st century rolls forward, humanity's needs will almost certainly come in both sizes. At one extreme, an entire nation's infrastructure—its roads and bridges, its dams and levees, and more—may be so neglected as to demand repair or replacement. At the other extreme, a lone individual—perhaps faced with an internal organ that is shutting down—may be overwhelmed by fear and fighting for survival. The renewing power of God offers help in both cases and can bring fresh solutions to where it seemed there were none.
These solutions are always in keeping with God's nature. A nonmaterial God doesn't replace corroding matter with gleaming matter. He never exchanges diseased or decaying matter with vibrantly functioning matter. Because God isn't operating within a material framework at all. Rather, He is continuously expressing His spiritual nature. That's renewing. As one realizes this in prayer, it grows easier to shed material beliefs for spiritual understanding. Then new views of God's renewing power begin to open up.
