Power

In the area I live in there are many ‘senior citizens’ (including me!), and one of the indications is the large number of mobility scooters (known as buggies) that frequent our streets. Someone I know decided to go out for a ride on her buggy, and asked her elderly husband to help get the machine out of the shed where it was kept. After a few false starts it was manoeuvred backwards out of the door, where it then got stuck across the threshold as the battery had gone flat with the effort. The elderly lady was frustrated, as she’d been about to launch out round the block for a breath of air, and the trip had to be postponed whilst the battery was recharged. It was a power problem.

There are often times in life when our spiritual battery feels flat. It maybe that we’re in a worship event where everyone around us seems enthusiastically lost in wonder, love and praise, but we feel outside it and disconnected and frustrated. Or perhaps we’ve scheduled a special extended quiet time with God, but it seems like He didn’t put it in His diary, so He doesn’t show up. (He’s there all the time of course!) Or maybe it’s prayer ministry time, but we can’t hear what God might be saying to us.

Sometimes the problem comes from our own attempts to empower ourselves. The soul goes into a self-charging mode, which gives a temporary experience, but not a lasting inner resource. Paul exclaims that he wants to know and experience the dunamis, (dynamic power, or enabling) of Jesus, ‘I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection’ (Philippians 3:10).

He qualifies the word dunamis by saying it’s the power of the resurrection of Christ. It’s a lasting, loving, and living power that he wants to know, not a temporary, human experience.

This power is also personal. Jesus wants to empower us each individually with His power. I’m reminded of the story in Luke 8 where Jesus heals the woman with the issue of blood, without really identifying her. He then says that “I know that power has gone from me”, and He wanted to know who it had gone to. There was a personal connection established.

When we go flat, we need to ask Jesus for that personal spiritual re-charge, a reconnection with the source of dynamic power for living. Only when this happens will we be able to fully function spiritually, and this will affect our worship, prayer, witness, and daily walk with God. No more ‘flat buggies’ for us!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for Your willingness to keep us recharged through the indwelling of Your Spirit in us. Help us to realise where we’ve been trying to self-charge with emotional substitutes, and enable us to be reconnected with You on a daily , so we’re full of Your dynamic power. Amen.