Power

             Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  (Ephesians 6:10-11)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

As I’ve noted in the past, when we think of power, we tend to think of control of others and the universe, of miracles, signs, and exorcisms. That fits in perfectly with Maslow’s Hierarchy, shared yesterday. We want power over the physical. We want safety. We want love, belongingness, and the esteem of ourselves and others. And we want self-actualization, to be all that we can be, and more. I suspect that our ideal of those things amounts to fortune, fame, and control. But what if God doesn’t mean those sorts of power?

I can provide a great example of the sort of power we want. I got into some poison ivy/oak/sumac/? – I think while weeding my neighbor’s garden. I didn’t notice it until a finger blistered, then two blotches appeared on my forearms. By last night, there were little bumps on other fingers and a second patch on my left arm. This morning, I found it on my upper lip and forehead. I have plantain salve and Calamine lotion to deal with it, but my immediate prayer was “Lord, make go away!” Naturally! Who wants to have blisters or itch? And I certainly don’t want it to spread. But is God’s focus on my itchy, blistered skin? Or is God’s focus my trusting Him? I’ve no doubt it’s both, but that the trust issue is the bigger

According to William Gurnal, author of The Christian in Complete Armour, God’s power is most readily available when we are weighed down by sin, overpowered by temptation, and oppressed by Christian duty (sometimes, it seems like it’s too much, doesn’t it?) In other words, we are given power to stand against the Devil’s worst.

And when we have needs, we may not notice His power, or we may notice the absence of His power. The first reason for that is that we don’t know what we’re looking for or are looking for the wrong thing. God may have delayed His power for some reason He may or may not eventually share with us. Or something in us may be preventing Him. Lastly, we may be called to endure or submit to Him and possibly to others in negative circumstances. Endure? Submit? Accept that my face and arms may be a mass of blisters over the next several days to weeks? Pray for the strength to get through it?  It’s not too big a deal, but what we learn from little deals can help us when the big deal comes along.