Power

Everything in the world seems to revolve around power. Who has it. Who doesn’t have it. Who wants it. Who is trying to keep it. Who has given up on it. 

Now you might be thinking, “WOAH HEATHER slow down a bit. Everything? Isn’t that a little rash?”

aannd you might be right. I tend to exaggerate to make a point, but track with me here a minute. Let’s start at the beginning. 

When Lucifer was cast out of heaven he essentially fell because he wanted power. Look at Ezekiel 14:13, “You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high” Satan was not content in his position. Instead, Satan desired to be God, to essentially “kick God off His throne” and take over the rule of the universe. Satan wanted to be God. If that’s not a power struggle then I don’t know what is. 

When Eve was tempted in the Garden of Eden to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree she knew what she was doing, yet she was enticed by power. In Genesis 3 the serpent says to her “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” You will be like God. You will know everything. Having the ability to gain knowledge and not being ignorant anymore when you feel like you are missing out on something is just so…appealing.

The stories about power and struggle for it are all over the Bible: Jacob and Esau, David and Bathsheba, Goliath and the people of Israel. Further more, the stories about power are all over the modern world too. 

Christians want power-the crusades happen

Hitler uses his power- the holocaust happens

Sadam abuses his power- his country starves

The Hutu want power- the Rwandan Genocide happens

As I think more and more about power I realize that even the decisions we as ordinary people make are often to gain some sort of power or because we don’t feel like we have enough power. We make money so we have power over where we live or what we do for fun. We go to college so that we have the power to choose our life path and get out of our parents houses. We get upset with traffic jams and long lines because we aren’t in control of our situation. Suicide often happens when we feel a loss of any power over our lives. College shootings happen because someone doesn’t have the power to choose who they will date.

The money is never enough and we are going into insane amounts of debt, we never have the right people to care about us so we might as well never try to make relationships work, we don’t ever get out of traffic and crazy road rage incidents happen. It seems that we keep striving and longing for power, but we are never satisfied and these terrible things keep happening! 

However, if there is one theme that I see repeated over and over again the Bible is how each and every should Christian turn their power over to God. If we decide to run our own lives and call our own shots, then our lives are going to take a completely different course than the one it would take if we followed God’s path. One of my favorite verses is in Proverbs 3 and it says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” How would your life look different if you gave God all the power, if you leaned on his understanding and trusted him to guide you. If you were willing to go anywhere and do anything for him? It is a crazy idea i know, but imagine the possibilities…