`Colours of the rainbow

Monday, July 03, 2006

When God shuts the electricity off
By John Fischer

Kay from Tampa Bay wrote me this week with her own power failure story after an earlier devotional about a reader's "brownout" experience. Being in Florida means that power failures can come quite frequently during hurricane season. It was during one of these - when she was complaining to God about having to go once again without power - that she distinctly had the impression of a word back from God: "You're my child, you are never without power - you are only without electricity right now."

It's a great lesson that probably applies to all of us to some degree all the time. It's the same lesson that prompted Paul to write that Christ's power works best in his weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). When our natural strength and abilities fail us, that's when we discover God's power was there all along. We are never without power; we are only without electricity.

And as in Paul's case, it may not be a temporary thing. He had asked God to remove the thing that was causing his power failure a bunch of times but God said no, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Or in other words, I could fix you, but then you might think you could make it on your own electricity instead of my power.

Electricity could stand for our own human energy - all the motivation and even adrenaline we can muster. It can also represent all that we can measure and control. Even though most of us know very little about electrical power - we just plug into the wall and expect it to be there - it is a resource we can control. We hook up to it, measure how much of it we use, and pay for it as we use it up. Our weakness and frustration is felt when we can no longer produce it or get it to where we need it. That's an electrical power failure that could easily translate spiritually to a failure of our natural abilities and strengths that force us to hook up to God, whose power never fails.

Are you having a "personal power failure" somewhere in your life today? Sometimes I think God purposely shuts our electricity off - all those natural talents and abilities we get used to expecting when we plug into our normal sources - to force us to discover his power. Of course it would be best if we were running on his power all the time, but that's hard to do sometimes when electricity is so handy.

The point is to remember, whatever happens, we are never without his power.

A rainbow appeared at10:39 AM

***