Source

For months now, the building committee of our church has been trying to generate a historical overview of our church through a compilation of recounted stories of God's blessings and grace. We put it on hold for the summer and tomorrow we will begin again to pursue our goal. Tomorrow is our meeting and I am responsible for making sure everyone has a hard copy of information that we currently have gathered, so we can review it, add to it, edit it and pray about what direction God wants us to include that we have not yet covered. So, my mind had been working since I got up but it wasn't until I sat down at the computer that I realized I was in trouble.

All information was stored on my computer....and it was dead....and my first thought was I am dead too!!!! I pushed the start button ten times, checked the plug...checked the connection in the back of the computer...nothing. Now what....I got up walked around, had a short conversation with God reminding him that there was attempted sabotage to a united effort that we were trying to pursue that would glorify him and recount the many blessings that he had given..I sat back down and stared at the blank unresponsive machine that held the information that I so desperately needed. My day was now planned....and it would start with pleading with Geek squad to get this baby up and going. I looked down at the extension cord...that it was plugged into...everything looked just fine and tight...and as a last ditch effort...I thought what if I just try to plug into a different outlet on the extension cord...never having to do this before....and sure enough it turned on immediately. I have no explanation...except God.

But it made me think...we too plug into things that look good and seem to make sense looking from the outside...but sometimes I think my power sources are not always the ones that generate the lasting power that effect my attitude, my wisdom, and my motivation to get jobs done that would be to God's glory and not necessarily for my satisfaction.

Sometimes we are plugged in but what we are plugged into is nothing but a dead end socket....that has no power. It looks good from the outside and it seems to appear to be a suitable source but in reality we are trying to draw power, or success or purpose from something that is not capable of accomplishing what it is we need. POWER. We need it to fend off temptation, to generate understanding, to motivate productive lifestyles, to keep us on His "right" track, to overcome anxieties that the world throws, to strengthen us when we are weak, to give us courage when we are scared to pieces...and to encourage us when we are tentative or downtrodden.

There is a working energy source that each of us have been given access to that stands right before us. It is Christ Jesus. He is active, and alive, and his power never runs low or runs out. If we want it..it is ours for the taking.
But we must not be fooled into thinking that the power of the world is equally sufficient to God's power. It is not though sometimes we allow ourselves to be deceived into thinking it does.

We are distracted time and time again by involvements that we consider to be worthy....but many times those involvements are just like plugging a cord into a "seemingly" adequate power source, not realizing that the efforts only result in an empty feed....sometimes the things that we choose are dead ends and do not lead us to the necessary power that we need to carry on God directed, productive lives.

2 Peter 1:3
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Regarding my computer ....It was dead...and I my project was dead because I was depending on the power from an empty source. Real life comes from God and God alone through his son Jesus. He is the never ending source of goodness and grace that gives us the power to live according to His righteousness. If we depend on sources other than God, we will find that we too might have a little power of our own to carry on day to day but certainly not enough to be who we are created to be, to do what we are created to do, and to live as we were created to live.

Dear Lord, Thank you for powering me up today. Amen

Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!