Empowered

For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said,
“We are his offspring.” Acts 17:28


Every morning when I wake up I have a choice. I can choose to live in Christ, to walk through my day with the knowledge of who I am and whose I am or I can choose to give into the pressures of the world. For months now I’ve gone back to a practice I started as ha new believer. It’s one I’ve revisited several times over the years. My only question is why I ever stop doing it. It’s a simple thing. When I wake up, before any thought, good or bad, can really register in my mind I say, “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)

Regardless of what the day holds, its very existence is ordained by God. Of course there are days when things don’t go my way. There are days that involve tragedy and suffering, or even just a mild illness, that don’t seem joyous and yet, if I believe what I say I believe I have to know that there is a purpose in everything.

Yesterday my husband received the news that his cousin had died. It came as a shock and was compounded by the fact that it appears to have been a suicide. Otto being Otto, was very faithful about it all. Even as his heart was breaking he told me how hard it is for him to understand that choice. He said, “There is nothing in life that we can’t come back from, nothing that we can’t turn around, except suicide.” He’s right, of course. That is a strong and faithful statement from anyone, but it comes from a man who has endured, conquered and survived, a lot. This isn’t someone who’s lived a charmed life where the worst thing to ever happen is a hangnail. This is a man who has tested the promises of God and found them to be true. He knows that there are seasons in life and that some are more pleasant than others. He knows that some seem unbearable and perhaps are, if we try to bear them alone.

In him we live and move and have our being. In him. I love those words. I love them almost as much as I love, but God. It seems to me when I hit a bump in the road or fall into a pothole that the words but God are like a lifeline. I could wallow in my fear, hurt or anger. I could be defeated by the lies of Satan, by financial troubles, by rejection, humiliation or loneliness but God shows up and changes my focus.

God shows up because I invite him. Which is a polite and pretty way to say I rant and rave and carry on and he in his infinite mercy hears those “prayers” and answers me. He doesn’t always give me the answer I want. In fact he often doesn’t give me the answer I want and that’s great because his answers are far superior to mine. He does show up, however and he does answer because in him we live and move and have our being.

John 15: 5 tells us that Jesus is the vine and we are branches. The second half of the verse includes the words, “apart from me, you can do nothing.” Let that sink in. Apart from him we can do nothing. He gives us the ability to do anything and everything we do. Which means, yes, sometimes, too often, we use that power in ways that break his heart. It’s not like we are empowered by God to do good but when we sin we pull from another source. There is no other source. It’s like giving your child money for lunch only to find they’ve used it to buy drugs. That’s a flimsy analogy because our children can get money from other sources but hopefully it paints a decent picture.

We are given life from the One true God. What we do with it, unfortunately is up to us. I agree with my husband, the stuff of this life is survivable if we hold onto Jesus. If, God forbid, we lose our grip, I thank God that he holds onto to us, tightly enough so that we won’t perish.