Power

 

POWER

What happens when the power in your home goes out?  When storms come and our power is knocked out, we end up in the dark.  Besides the inconvenience of it all, don't you feel a bit off-kilter when the electricity is off?  You might feel like Sparky in the picture above.  He's trying to figure out how on earth he's going to get the electricity in the box to start working, and he looks like he's out of ideas.  It's unsettling.

                                       

Without electricity, our power outlets are useless.  But, what about the times that electricity is flowing through the outlets and power is available -- like in the picture above.  In this case, all I have to do is press that plug into the outlet and the hair dryer will start blowing hot air.  But, as long as that plug lies on the counter, the hairdryer just lies there, a useless hunk of plastic, unable to perform the simple job it was created to do.

Are you starting to see a spiritual message shaping up here?  Of course you are!

We can live our lives letting our plug lie on the counter, or we can plug it into the outlet and have power flow through us.  It's our choice.  Without God's mighty power flowing through our lives, we limp along trying to live in our own very limited power.  We wonder why we're filled with so much anxiety and dissatisfaction and feelings of failure.  Our personal power is just not enough.

Once this hairdryer is plugged into the outlet, a wonderful blast of hot air flows through the nozzle and I can dry my wet, dripping hair.  After all, that IS what the hairdryer was created to do.  The power makes all the difference.  God's power working through us makes all the difference too.

The Bible offers many verses on the wonderful power God offers His children.  Here are a few:

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit 

is come upon you..." Acts 1:8

"I can do all things through Christ, 

who strengthens me," Philippians 4:13

"But God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and 

of love and of a sound mind," 2 Timothy 1:7

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that 

we ask or think, according to the power that works in us," Ephesians 3:30

And one of my favorites, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us," 2 Corinthians 4:7.