Power

             for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:13) 

In his discussion of God’s power, Mr. Gurnall lists four reasons why we might not see the power in question.

We may have overlooked it. One of the reasons for this is that we are looking for some other manifestation of His power. If we’re looking for a million dollars, and instead He is guiding us through a spiritual minefield, we might not notice the mines, the accidents, the many things that didn’t and don’t happen that could. Our being alive from second to second is possibly by His sustaining power – but that’s too mundane.

We may be blocking it. Not all of God’s action on our behalf is without conditions. God did not lead the Israelites into the Promised Land the first time they reached the border. We must be careful with this one because it seems to be the automatic response. Like Job, if X doesn’t happen, God must be punishing us for our sins and we need to “’fess up.” Or it’s because we don’t have enough faith. Those things may be true, or it could be that one of the other reasons is the key this time, or it might be a combination of several reasons.

He may have purposely delayed it. When Lazarus died, Jesus waited before going to comfort the sisters. In that culture, a person wasn’t “really dead” until they’d been dead for three or four days. He stayed away for long enough that no one could say that Lazarus hadn’t actually been dead. God led the Israelites through a meandering path instead of taking them quickly to where they were doing. He had them camp out when the Egyptians were on their way, so that the miracle of their escape would be compounded.

He is calling us to persevere. Lastly, sometimes God chooses to go with us through the storm. He uses His power to work within us, rather than on our surroundings.

I’m not sure these are the only reasons. They don’t have to be. The point is that just because we don’t recognize His power working on our behalf doesn’t mean it’s not, and if it’s not, it may or may not be because we’ve done anything wrong.