Spiritual Power Outage
Have you recently experienced a power outage? It sure changes perspective on things. We are too dependent on always having electrical power in our modern culture.
But how would it feel to live without God’s power? If you have never experienced God’s power you don’t know what you are missing. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor. 1:18, NIV)
But when you are used to have it and then there is a spiritual power outage, you hopefully realize how important part of your life God really is.
We can never be too dependent on God. The more we need God, the more power we get. This is one of the paradoxes of Christian faith. I have come to love paradoxes. We can experience the mystery and holiness of God in them.
Power of God is much more and much better than electrical power in our life can ever be. Electricity gets our electronics going. God’s love is power for living. This source of power is renewable, never-ending resource. We can base our life on it. We can count on and depend on the promises of God. He will deliver.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade–kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5, NIV)
There are many causes of spiritual power failures in our end of the network. If or when you are experiencing a spiritual power outage you need to know how to restore power. God is faithful even when we fall away or experience short or longer power outages. God is faithful but He is not forceful with his power. We need to ask for His power in order to receive it. But He is ready to restore us and pick us up whenever we cry out for help.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And put a new and right spirit within me,
Do not cast me away from your presence,
And do not take your holy spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
And sustain in me a willing spirit.
(Psalm 51:10-12, NRSV)
Once we are used to have God’s power in our lives we don’t want to live without it. Hence, we need to protect our power system from outages. Jesus is encouraging us to build the house of our lives on the rock so it will endure any storms:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27, NIV)
There will be storms in our lives, there’s no doubt about it. But one thing is sure: God is faithful. He is always there. God is never the source of your spiritual power outage. He is the source of life and love.
It is up to you to ask God in your life.
He will grant you peace and joy because He loves you.
It is up to you to build your life on the rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ.
He will grant you grace and mercy because He loves you.
It is up to you to ask the Holy Spirit to keep you from power outages.
He will sustain you with His power and might because He loves you.
It is up to you: Power or Blackout?
Gracious God,
Thank you for being forever faithful.
Show us how to protect against spiritual power outages.
Help us to experience your energizing power in our lives.
Enable us to share your power with people around us.
Thank you for providing everything we need.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Q4U: Have you experienced spiritual power outages? What did you learn? Are you now protected from spiritual power outages?
Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you are empowered by God for daily living!
Photo courtesy of Danielle Hartland, design Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up today with Unite the Bloggersphere and #tellhisstory.
4 thoughts on “Spiritual Power Outage”
Being somewhat of an introvert, it’s easy to think that I don’t need other people–which sometimes morphs into forgetfulness that I need a constant source of power in my life as well. So, yes, there have been times when I’ve unplugged myself from a daily relationship with God–but the older I get, the less this happens because I’m getting old enough to realize I can’t operate very long without a connection to God!
As an extrovert myself I had not thought about the difference. Very insightful. Thank you for sharing. And abundant blessings to you!
Good morning! We are neighbors today over at Jennifer’s place and I am so glad I stopped by! I love this: “God’s love is power for living.” Amen! (And that verse in Peter? Come on!) I wouldn’t say my summer of silence was a power outage, but it sure felt like there was some sort of short going on! Always though, I was plugged in and tapped in and connected, but the surges were few and far between! 😉
There sure are different times and seasons in our lives. I thank God for being always faithful even when we are not. Good to meet you, Karrilee! You sound delightful. May God bless you richly!