There are so many occurrences in the Bible that are only mentioned once. For instance, there is only one recorded instance of Jesus turning water into wine, only one moment when Jesus walks on water, and only one great flood that reset the righteousness of earth.
These are the times when God simply refuses to let one moment define Him or the way He operates. It’s so easy to look at the scriptures and reduce God to an equation of cause and effect. We expect that since God acted in a particular way in the past that He must be obligated to repeat a similar action in the future should a related scenario present itself. These are the connections our minds tend to make even though they can be meaningless.
Sometimes God is simply the God of once.
But then there the instances of Once Again. In Ezekiel 36:37 it says, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Once Again I will yield to the plea of the house of Israel and do this for them…” He then goes on to describe the blessings he will once again pass on to the people of who have called upon his name.
I have been struggling through Ezekiel because there are so many disappointments and so many verses outlining the wrath of God on the people that refuse to call on His name. But then came this verse, followed by the wonderful story in chapter 37 of the Valley of Dry Bones.
Those bones once had life, and will have it once again. So many of us reach the point of spiritual dehydration thinking God’s blessings no longer apply to us. They may have been there once… but that was a long time ago and we just don’t feel them anymore.
We must remind ourselves that God is the God of once, but most importantly, He is the God of once again. We must joyously choose to be defined by God’s grace and not our own fleeting moments of ineffectiveness. Because once again God will use me and you to receive the breath of life and empower us to breathe it into the lives of others.
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